Crisis: International

Tarlac journalist slain
A community journalist was gunned down by unidentified men on his way home on April 2 in Tarlac City.

Orlando Mendoza, a columnist for several local newspapers, was ambushed by the armed men while on his way home, and sustained fatal wounds in the head and body.

Mendoza wrote for the Tarlac Profile and was the editor in chief of another paper, Tarlac Patrol.

The 58-year-old journalist also worked at the local municipal office as documentation consultant of land disputes and papers, according to Abel Pablo, president of the Central Luzon Media Association.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is still determining whether Mendoza was killed in the line of duty.

Although he did not discount the possibility that Mendoza’s death was media-related, Patrol publisher Pacifico Guevarra said he was more inclined to believe the victim was killed due to his involvement in a number of land disputes, according to a report by the Inquirer News Service.

However, Mendoza, along with Guevarra, was charged with libel last month by a local faction of the Phililppine Guardian Brotherhood, a military fraternity, for writing vilifying columns against the latter. The charge was dismissed by a local court just last week.

Bacolod media wary of AFP
Citing intelligence reports, the top military officer in Negros Occidental province has branded a local paper that was closed down in 2004 as a propaganda tool of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and claimed the publication was being revived.

Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, linked the Visayas Daily Courier to the CPP-NPA during a meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council at the provincial capitol on March 28.

Edgar Cadagat, publisher of the Visayas Daily Courier, denied that the paper was going to be revived, since this would entail millions of pesos in investments that he did not have.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s adviser for Western Visayas, Rafael Coscolluela, in a separate interview, criticized the military for targeting local journa-lists. He said the warning about the Visayas Daily Courier sounded “a little paranoid.”

A week before, the military placed in its “order of battle” Julius Mariveles, news director of dyEZ Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod, for being an alleged member of the CPP-NPA.

However, Mariveles has been working as a journalist since 2002, and used to be secretary- general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Negros, not Bayan Muna. He is also secretary general of the Correspondents, Broadcaster and Reporters Association and an officer of the Congress of Active Media Practitioners and the Negros Media Council for Press Freedom.

Source: Inquirer News Service

Delay in case of slain Aklan radioman scored
Justice remains elusive for Aklan broadcaster Herson “Boy” Hinolan as his murder case suffered yet another delay recently in the Aklan Regional Trial Court.

Judge Ledelia Aragona-Biliran, presiding judge of RTC Branch 2, granted the petition of the defense to cancel the hearing and ordered the suspension of proceedings for 60 days or until further notice by the court.

In calling for a suspension, Biliran cited the pending petition for review filed by the defense before the Court of Appeals (CA), questioning her order to the provincial prosecutor’s office to reinvestigate the case against Mayor Alfredo “Fred” Arcenio of Lezon town.

Arcenio was earlier charged with homicide for Hinolan’s killing, but after a reinvestigation, the Regional State Prosecutor’s Office amended the charge to murder. The hearing was supposed to resolve the issue of whether the court should admit the amended information against Arcenio.

In its petition, the defense asked the CA to set aside Biliran’s order to reinvestigate the case and to arraign Arcenio on the homicide charge.

It also asked Biliran to inhibit herself from the case, citing her submission of a comment to the CA which “show(s) that she was arguing actually for the prosecution.”

Witnesses have tagged Arcenio as the lone gunman who repeatedly shot Hinolan on Nov. 13, 2004 while the broadcaster was urinating near a carnival in the capital town of Kalibo, Aklan. He died two days later from at least seven bullet wounds.

Hinolan was station manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo and hosted the station’s morning program Bombohanay Bigtime.

Source: reports by Nestor Burgos, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Visayas bureau

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