CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 05 November) – Police are still investigating the possible motives behind the killing of radio anchor Juan “Johnny Walker” Jumalon who was doing a live broadcast from the announcer’s booth of 94.7 Gold FM Calamba in Calamba town, Misamis Occidental, when a gunman barged in and shot him at around 5:35 a.m. Sunday, silencing him forever.
The killing was captured live on the Facebook page of the radio station owned by Jumalon.
In his program “Pahapyod sa Kabuntagon” (Morning Caress), the 57-year old Jumalon was reading congratulatory messages for those who won Monday’s barangay election when two successive gunshots were heard, apparently fired from the left side of the frame and just as quickly, the gunman grabbed Jumalon’s necklace. The audience could see Jumalon as he was shot and as he was breathing his last. The background music that had been playing during his program, continued.
Police Corporal Paul Guigayoma of the Calamba municipal police station said Jumalon succumbed to two gunshot wounds on the head in the announcer’s booth at the station located beside his house. The gunman and his lookout fled towards a parked motorcycle and sped off, he said.
Jumalon’s program, which airs live on Facebook from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. features morning greetings from the audience and marketing of products such as whitening soap, herbal soap, liniment, oil, and other items under the JW product line, also owned by Jumalon. Selling medicines and herbal products is a trend among many community radio stations.
A colleague in Calamba said Jumalon was not a radio commentator but an anchor of a morning greeting radio program.
Jumalon’s killing reminded many of what happened to Charles Aberilla of DXWG in Iligan City, except that there was no video recording of Aberilla’s death 38 years ago.
Aberilla was a radio commentator who was killed by three armed men who entered the announcer’s booth of DXWG and shot him at around 5:45 a.m. on April 29, 1985. Listeners heard the gunshots and Aberilla gasping for breath and groaning before he was completely silenced. The radio station went off air.
Cpl. Guigayoma said the two gunmen arrived on foot at around 5:35 a.m. at Jumalon’s radio station.
“Apparently they knew their way around because they opened the iron gates and barged inside the radio station,” he said.
He said the killers ran to the motorcycle they parked a short distance from the house of the victim.
NUJP statement
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the brazen killing of Jumalon may open the floodgates for the killing of more community journalists.
“We fear more community journalists would be killed in the aftermath of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections a week ago,“ Kath Cortez of the
NUJP Mindanao Safety Office said.
Cortez said many community journalists received threats from politicians and their supporters during their coverage of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections last Monday.
She said Jumalon is the fourth journalist killed under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
NUJP’s Cortez said they are still looking if the radio station is registered with the National Telecommunications Commission.
PTFomS to PNP and NBI
In a statement, the Presidential Task Force on Media Secruity (PTFoMS) called on the Philippine National Police to immediately activate a special investigation task group (SITG) to “investigate this incident and apprehend the suspect and others possibly involved in the interest of justice.”
Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez, PTFoMS executive director, said the creation of the SITG “is among the agreed protocols among the agencies within the PTFoMS.”
He also asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is also part of the PTFoMS to also start gathering evidence in support of the ongoing investigation to hasten its resolution.
“While the motive is yet to be determined, we consider this incident as ‘work-related’ for the moment,” Gutierrez said.
He called on media colleagues and the public “not to resort to any speculation or make baseless accusations that can only distract our investigators on the true motive for the attack on Jamalon. Instead, we call on them to provide relevant and factual information that can hasten the resolution of this incident,” Gutierrez said. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
