MANILA, (PNA) – Alarmed by the resurgence of criminality, Senator Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III on Thursday deplored the killing of an Iligan City radio commentator and a young, practicing lawyer in the province of Antique.
Pimentel described the daylight killing of lawyer John Mark Espera, 39, last Saturday as a hard blow to the legal profession, urging the law enforcers to work double time for the early resolution of the case.
A lawyer by profession, Pimentel also called on the police authorities to exert extra effort to apprehend the killers of Fernando “Nanding” Solijon, an anchorman of the public affairs program “Sandiganan” of FM radio station Love Radio.
”Our police authorities have to exert extra effort to apprehend the triggermen and unmask the perpetrators of these crimes,” Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said.
He said that the silencing of Solijon was another bloody affront against press freedom in the country which has continually suffered from its shattered image as one of the worst countries in the world with a staggering record of media killing and abuses.
Police investigation showed that Solijon was invited by a friend to attend a party in the nearby, coastal village of Buruun. On his way back to his car after the party, a riding in tandem showed up, and shot him in close range several times, sustaining gunshot wounds in the forehead, abdomen and shoulder.
He was declared dead on arrival at a hospital in Iligan city.
Pimentel said that it could not be discounted that high-profile personalities who are the subject of Solijon’s acerbic commentaries in his popular radio program are among the possible suspects in the killing, the same fate that had befallen several broadcasters across the country in the past few years.
He also called on residents of Iligan city and the fans of Solijon in his radio program to help police authorities in tracking down the suspects to diffuse an air of uncertainty and tension in the city rocked again by another case of barbaric, media killing.