Manila: A former governor surrendered to authorities over the killing of a journalist in the southern Philippines in 2010, a senior official said.
Douglas Cagas, former governor of Davao del Sur, surrendered to to police in Davao del Sur Monday morning following a reinvestigation of the case. Cagas and his associates were acquitted despite the confession of a hired killer who had identified Cagas, ex-mayor Vicente ‘Butch’ Fernandez, Ali Ordaneza and Bado ‘BadoBaritua’ Sanchez as masterminds in the killing of Nestor Bedolido, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in Manila.
Bedolido, editor of Kastigador (Castigator), a newsweekly magazine, was shot dead by one of two motorcycle-riding men in front of his karaoke bar at Rizal Avenue in Davao’s Digos City on June 19, 2010. He wrote exposés on electoral anomalies in the south in 2010.
“I ordered the filing of the murder case against former governor Cagas and company in late August,” said de Lima, adding that Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Carmelita Davin signed the warrant of arrest hours after Cagas had surrendered.
A convoy of supporters accompanied Cagas when he voluntarily surrendered, said a radio report from Digos City.
The three others involved in the killing are still at large, de Lima said.
Some 141 journalists were killed in the Philippines between 1986 and September 2013, according to the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility, secretariat of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists.
In 2010, the Philippines ranked third (from sixth in 2008) among 12 countries identified as dangerous for journalists, according to the Global Impunity Index.
Last August 29, in a 16-page resolution, Justice Secretary de Lima said that murder charges must be refiled against the alleged masterminds in the killing of the journalist.
