Premature conclusion, editorializing

JEERS TO some media organizations for prematurely concluding that it was New People’s Army guerillas who killed a town mayor in Agusan del Sur and his son, and for editorializing in a news report.

The Philippine Star published “NPA rebels execute mayor, son” on its front page last Oct. 21, 2015. The bodies of the two men had been found hog tied with bullet wounds early Tuesday morning, October 20, in Barangay Bitan-agan, Butuan City. They were abducted early Monday night, according to the report.

Citing Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad as source, the report said that Loreto, Agusan del Sur Mayor Dario Otaza, 60, and his son Daryl, 27, had been taken from their residence by 18 suspected NPA rebels posing as National Bureau of Investigation agents. Otaza was reportedly a former NPA rebel who had been actively campaigning for peace in his town. Sources in the article condemned the killing but did say that the killers were suspected NPA guerillas.

On the same day, the Manila Bulletin and the Philippine Daily Inquirer also published front page stories on Otaza and his son but were more careful in their headlines; The Bulletin published “Mayor, son found dead 11 hours after their abduction,” while the Inquirer ran “Agusan Sur mayor, son hot dead; NPA eyed.”

While other sources by the Bulletin and the Inquirer also suspected the NPA to be behind the killings, an investigation was still ongoing and had yet to establish that it was the NPA that was responsible.

On October 21, a CNN Philippines’ report “Mayor Otaza was a former rebel” recalled Otaza’s background as a former rebel as well as his efforts to urge his former comrades to surrender. The report, however, expressed the opinion that “Over his term, he welcomed 154 NPA rebels back to the government side. Thus, the NPA sees Otaza as a big threat to their organization who must be stopped by all means.”

Twitter user @highreaching tagged CMFR regarding the CNN Philippines report.

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