We in the military are equally saddened by the recent killing of one of our media partners in the Bicol Region, Romeo Olea. As he is widely known, Romy is a hard-hitting journalist and radio commentator who had exposed alleged anomalies carried out by some local officials. We admired him for his advocacy for honest governance despite the threats to his life.
Showing our commitment to help in identifying the murderers, the Philippine Army commander in the Bicol Region has thrown his full support behind the PNP which formed the Task Force Olea. Both agencies are now in the process of gathering all data and in the tedious job of ‘connecting the dots’.
Against the backdrop of this collaborative effort to ferret out the truth, Mr John Concepcion, the blabber-mouthed leader of KARAPATAN-Bicol, accused the military of killing the journalist based on his supposed “Order of Battle” which allegedly tagged Olea as one of the NPA rebels. We deny this allegation as we assure the public that our OB do not just include anybody, much less the media.
Indeed, there are striking similarities to these twin media killings in CamSur. In July, 2010, Miguel “Mike” Belen was also killed in the same fashion — gunmen riding in tandem.
Bystanders who witnessed the slaying of Belen identified the motorcycle driver, Erick Vargas leading to his arrest and incarceration in BJMP-Iriga.
The killer who was identified through a police gallery, turned out to be Gina Bagacina a.k.a. Ka Liezel of the dreaded SPARU hit squad of the CPP-NPA. She remains at large and still poses real danger to anyone who may be targeted in their next killings.
By his theatrical act of finger-pointing, John Concepcion has to check where his other fingers are actually pointing. He must start asking himself, ‘What is going on?’.
Why is Mr Concepcion tight-lipped as regards to the involvement of his friends from the communist’s armed group in the killing of Mike Belen?
Again, we in the military will get our job done by unearthing the true colors of the communists in this country. In the same manner, we will help end the spate of media killings.