THE government and the family of murdered Negros broadcast journalist, Rex Cornelio Pepino, are facing an uphill fight to give him justice with local politicians and some members of the local police allegedly trying to frustrate the investigation.
According to informed sources, a special investigating team (SIT) created last month on order of Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary, Menardo Guevarra, is yet to do its job after encountering “resistance” from the local Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) formed earlier by the local police to investigate the incident.
The SITG, one source said, does not want another group to meddling in their probe.
Guevarra ordered the SIT created under the DOJ in his capacity as co-chair of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS).
The task force, in turn, was created by Pres. Duterte under Administrative Order No. 1 in 2016 to protect the life, liberty and security of all members of the press.
It was also gathered that “tension” has developed between “well-meaning” law enforcers in the local police, to include the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), whose investigating agents are being “harassed” and even “threatened” by forces identified with vested political interests in Negros Oriental.
Pepino, 48, a local broadcaster at ‘Energy 97.3’ FM radio, was shot five times on the evening of May 5, 2020, along Villa Armada, North Road, Bgy. Daro, Dumaguete City. His wife who was with him at the time, fortunately, was unhurt.
Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, head of the PTFoMS, said they are now looking at the possibility of a “total takeover” by the task force to ensure that no whitewash happened.
He said this might also help ease the tension between members of law enforcement units who now appear to have a “divided loyalty,” between their oath of office as public servants and as followers of local politicians.
“This is alarming,” said Egco, adding he had already submitted a situation report to Malacañang.
Pepino was the third member of the press killed in Negros island since 2018.
In 2014, he was sued for defamation by Gov. Roel Degamo, but was subsequently acquitted by the court.
One of the vehicles involved in the ambush was later on established to be a property of the provincial government.
Meanwhile, a partial transcript of the court record on the killing of Kidapawan, North Cotabato broadcaster, Eduardo ‘Ed’ Dizon that it was not only the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), which filed a petition to transfer the venue of the trial that effectively delayed the proceeding.
Based on portions of the court’s records given to Pinoy Exposé, Melinda Quintos De Jesus of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), was with Elizabeth Panelo of NUJP in asking the Supreme Court to transfer the venue of Dizon’s case, either in Davao City or, in Manila.
Egco however, noted that both groups had no participation whatsoever in the investigation of Dizon’s murder, “one way or another.”
He bewailed that because of the CMFR and NUJP’s intervention, the formal court trial of Dizon’s case had been inadvertently delayed.
Dizon, radio anchor of Brigada News FM in Kidapawan was slain last July 10, 2019.