Cebu court convicts killer of radio broadcaster

A local court in Cebu City has convicted the accused killer of a radio broadcaster in 2005, who was a key witness in the killing of a fellow broadcaster in Pagadian City three years earlier. In a decision promulgated on January 26, a Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) sentenced the 25-year-old Muhammad "Madix" Maulana to life imprisonment for the murder of Edgar Amoro, a broadcaster of radio dxPR in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur province. The court also ordered Maulana to pay the family of Amoro P50,000 as civil indemnity and P145,000 for damages. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said they found out that Amoro was murdered because of his positive identification of police officer Guillermo Wapile as the gunman in the killing of fellow broadcaster Edgar Damalerio in May 2002. Positive identification In her 19-page decision, Cebu RTC Branch 6 Judge Ester Veloso said the alibi of Maulana that he could not have been in Pagadian during the attack did not hold water, in light of Mrs. Amoro’s identification of him as the killer, according to a Cebu Daily News (CDN) report. Two other witnesses, a responding police officer and a barangay (village) tanod, also positively identified Maulana as one of the three killers who shot Amoro on the morning of February 2, 2005. Amoro was heading home from Zamboanga del Sur National High School, where he was a teacher, when the attack happened. Maulana claimed during the hearings, however, that he could not have killed Amoro as he was attending the wedding of his younger sister in Binuatan village in Dinas town, also in Zamboanga del Sur, around 60 kilometers away or a two-hour travel from Pagadian City where the crime happened. The court, however, gave weight to the testimony of Amoro's wife, who said she heard her husband utter the name “Madix" while lying bloodied on the ground. 'Fruit of extraordinary sacrifice' The Amoro family welcomed the decision, describing it as the “fruit of their extraordinary sacrifice." "Finally, the day has come when I could gladly say to the spirit of my late dad, 'This is the day I promised you, Father,'" daughter Edel Grace Amoro said in a letter of gratitude, adding that the pain they felt upon the death of their father would still take several years to heal. “I do not just speak in behalf of my family but also on behalf of all the families of slain journalists in our country who cry for justice for the death of their loved ones," the daughter also said as she called on the families of the other slain journalists to continue in their pursuit of justice and healing. The international media organization Reporters Without Borders similarly hailed the conviction as an "encouraging" sign towards bringing justice to the other slain journalists, even as it said the Amoro case should remain open as the two accomplices and the mastermind have yet to be identified and brought to trial. “We hail the Amoro family’s courage. Despite the threats to their lives, they fought to obtain the conviction of this killer, who was able to flout justice for a long time thanks to local complicity. The judicial authorities satisfied the family’s expectations, especially when they transferred the case from Pagadian to Cebu City in 2007 following serious death threats," the organization said. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chapter in Zamboanga del Sur and the Zamboanga del Sur-Pagadian City Press Club meanwhile said in a joint statement that while they celebrate the conviction of Maulana, the masterminds in the killings of Amoro and Damalerio have yet to be arrested. Seven cases of media killings in Cebu courts According to the CDN report, Cebu City courts have tried seven cases of media killings since 2000, five of which have resulted in the conviction of the accused. Two of the victims were from Cebu, while the other were from other Visayan areas and from Minadanao, whose families have requested the transfer of court hearings due to security threats they have been receiving. Apart from Damalerio’s and Amoro’s, the cases include the killing of Marlene Esperat in Sultan Kudarat in 2002, who wrote anti-graft columns for the Midland Review; the 2004 murder of photojournalist Allan Dizon of The Freeman, and the 2005 killing of radio dyDD broadcaster George Benaojan. Two other cases are pending before Cebu RTC Branch 16, according to the report. One is for the 2001 murder of radio dyKR broadcaster Rolando Ureta in Aklan, while the other is for the killing of Bombo Radyo broadcaster Herson Hinolan, also from Aklan, in 2004. Based on NUJP monitoring, 104 journalists have already been killed since 1986 when the Marcos dictatorship was dismantled. Of this number, 67 died during the Arroyo administration alone. This includes the victims of the massacre in Maguindanao in November last year, where at least 32 journalists died.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV