more journalists killed in the philippines. who is doing this

More killings: Journalist, Bayan leader shot dead

First posted 00:53am (Mla time) Nov 22, 2005
By Tonette Orejas, Anselmo Roque, Marlon Ramos
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the Nov. 22, 2005 issue of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer


IN AN APPARENT UPSURGE of political killings, gunmen shot dead a
reporter and a leftwing militant and police found the bodies of a youth
leader and her husband who were kidnapped nearly a month ago.

Roberto "Robby" Ramos, 39, a reporter and columnist of the weekly
Katapat News, based in Cavite province, outside Manila, was killed on
Sunday by two motorcycle-riding men in front of Pinky's Market in the
village of Banlic in Cabuyao town in the province of Laguna at 7:45
p.m., police said.

Ramos was the ninth journalist killed in the country this year and the
second in three days. On Friday, broadcaster Ricardo Uy was shot dead
by a gunman in front of his house in Sorsogon City, southeast of
Manila.

Since the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, 99
journalists have been killed in the Philippines, according to a list
compiled by the Inquirer. The National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines (NUJP) puts the figure at 72.

"We urge the President and the

police to drop their self-serving rhetoric and work genuinely and
resolutely for the arrest, prosecution and punishment of killers of
journalists," the NUJP said in a statement.

"The President must act to erase the Philippines' notoriety as the
most murderous and the most dangerous -- next only to Iraq -- country
in the world for journalists," it said.

In Pampanga province, north of Manila, Rommel Arcilla, a member of the
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), was killed by armed men at the
Guagua-Floridablanca border at 7:30 a.m. yesterday, police said. His
wife and seven-year-old son witnessed the killing.

Arcilla was driving a jeep to work at the Pampanga Electric Cooperative
II where he was community relations officer when four men on two
motorcycles fired at him. He sustained three bullet wounds, said
Rodolfo Salas, chief of a government management team working with
cooperatives. His wife and child were unhurt.

Salas, a former chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is
taking care of the victim's traumatized wife and son.

Arcilla was the 60th Bayan member killed this year.

Also yesterday, police said the bodies of Maribel Supera, 27, former
president of the leftwing League of Filipino Students in the Central
Luzon State University, and her husband Danilo, 32, were found in San
Jose City in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila.

The remains of the couple were found stuffed in two sacks dumped in a
farm at Sitio Tumana in the village of Palestina 26 days after they
were reported to have been abducted by armed men.

The woman, who was pregnant, had two bullet wounds in the head while
her husband had one. Both had been hogtied and their mouths covered
with masking tape.

Since 2001, at least 86 members of militant groups have been killed in
apparent politically motivated killings.

Motive not known

Supt. Renilo Bamba, Cabuyao police chief, said Ramos was about to cross
the street when he was waylaid by the assailants armed with a
..38-caliber revolver.

Ramos, of San Juan village in the town of Calamba in Laguna, died from
bullet wounds in the neck and right cheek. A bullet pierced his right
eye, Bamba said.

He said police still had no motive for the slaying, but a local
journalist who was a close friend of Ramos said hawkers selling pirated
compact disks could be responsible. Police recently raided the area and
seized 257 sacks of CDs worth P4 million.

"Maybe they thought it was Ramos who tipped off the police," said
the journalist, who requested anonymity.

A day earlier, Ramos nearly had a fistfight with the vendors after he
reportedly rebuked them for selling pirated CDs.

"Ballpen lang ang katapat ninyo" [A ballpen would subdue you],"
Ramos was quoted as telling them, who were said to have retorted,
"Bala lang ang katapat mo." [A bullet would fell you].

Justice sought

Cecilia Ramos, 45, the victim's widow, said she had no idea who
wanted her husband dead. She said her husband was very discreet about
his work.

"He kept the nature of his job from his family," Cecilia told the
Inquirer at the wake of her husband at the Rizal Memorial Chapel in
Calamba.

"He was very easy to talk with. That's why I'm wondering why they
had to kill him. This is really painful for me. All we want now is
justice for Robby," she said.

Ramos' children -- daughter Charmaine, 12, and son Russel, 11 -- said
they were very angry at whoever ordered the killing of their father.

Archie Gaddang, Katapat publisher, said that two weeks ago Ramos
confided to him that he had received death threats through text
messages and calls from unidentified persons on his mobile phone.

Gaddang said he advised Ramos "to slow down on his hard-hitting
columns" on illegal gambling activities and prostitution in the
Laguna towns of San Pedro, Biñan, Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao and Calamba.

Gaddang said the operations of video "karera" [race] and fruit game
machines, which were being played like slot machines in casinos, were a
staple of Ramos' column, Patrol Watch.

"I also told him to file a complaint with the police. I don't know
though if he had filed one," he said in a mobile phone interview.

Bottle-throwing incident

On Sept. 28, Ramos figured in a bottle-throwing incident involving
Laguna Gov. Teresita Lazaro.

Ramos, who was then covering the session of the provincial council at
the capitol building in Sta. Cruz town, reportedly caught the ire of
Lazaro after he took photographs while she was talking to some board
members.

The session had been suspended after two board members walked out
during a debate on a multimillion-peso bond flotation that Lazaro was
ardently pushing.

All of a sudden, an irate Lazaro threw an empty plastic bottle of
mineral water at Ramos.

The following day, Lazaro made a public apology over a local radio
station in Calamba before flying off to Rome, Italy.

Cecilia said her husband had told her about the incident. She said she
berated her husband after he decided not to write about the issue in
his column.

Asked if the bottle-throwing incident would be included in the police
investigation, Bamba said: "I really have no idea about that issue.
But we will be looking at all possible motives in the killing."

The Inquirer tried but failed to contact Lazaro on her mobile phone.
With reports from Luige A. del Puerto and Norman Bordadora

.

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