Suspect in 2018 killing of Davao del Norte journo nabbed —task force

One of the suspected gunmen in the 2018 killing of Davao del Norte journalist Dennis Denora has been arrested, the government task force on media security announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS)
identified the suspect as Richard Posas Bolastig, a subject of a court-issued arrest warrant.

Bolastig is currently detained at the Tagum City Jail awaiting trial, PTFoMS said.

Denora, publisher of Trends and Times, a community paper based in Davao del Norte, was killed by two gunmen in an ambush in Panabo City on June 7, 2018.

A murder charge has already been filed against Bolastig and another unidentified cohort in 2019 for the killing. The case is pending at Branch 4 of the Regional Trial Court of Panabo City presided by Judge Carmel Gil Grado.

"This is proof of the government’s unwavering commitment to bring to justice all perpetrators of media killings in the country," PTFoMS co-chair and Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin M. Andanar said of Bolasig's arrest.

For his part, Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, PTFoMS executive director assured media workers "that the so-called culture of impunity in the Philippines has finally ended with the creation of the Task Force by President [Rodrigo] Duterte."

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said 18 journalists have been killed under the Duterte administration as of November 2020. --KBK, GMA News