DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 12 November) – The Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines (PCP) has named two student photojournalists as recipients of the PCP Gene Boyd Lumawag Workshop Grant for the 15th Professional Photojournailism & Documentary Workshop in Laoag City on November 22 to 26.
The announcement was made on Sunday, November 12, on the 19th death anniversary of MindaNews photo editor Gene Boyd Rodriguez Lumawag, a member of the PCP, who was gunned down at the pier in Jolo, Sulu on November 12, 2004 while taking photographs of the sunset. He would have turned 27 the next month.
The grant entitles the recipients to participate fully in the workshop free of charge but the grantee shoulders travel expenses to and from the workshop venue at the Redemptorist Laoag Vocation Ministry in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.
The student photojournalists are Andreana Chavez of The Catalyst, student publication of the College of Communication of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Manila and Rainiel Angelyn Figueroa of The Varsitarian, student publication of the University of Santo Tomas.
Chavez said she is “committed to making a positive impact through my work as a student photojournalist.”
“By receiving this grant and attending workshops, I would be equipped with the skills and knowledge to create impactful visual stories that can bring about change. I aspire to contribute to society by highlighting marginalized voices, documenting social injustices, and advocating for positive social transformation through my photographs.”
Figueroa said she wants to “build experiences and a career in photojournalism that would help me teach young generations the value of the craft I am pursuing.”
“Through this workshop, I will learn and unravel many things about my photography skills. I hope to contribute to photojournalism’s continued growth and development in the Philippines by actively participating in PCP and its initiatives.”
In December 2003, Lumawag was selected by the PCP to participate in the Asia-Europe Young Photographers Forum held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The AEYPF is a gathering of 20 photographers from Asia and Europe. PCP hosted the 2006 edition in Manila.
Lumawag was in Sulu as part of a MindaNews team that went around the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for a series of interviews and research on good governance practices for a book project and video production.
He was preparing for his first Eid’l Fitr coverage the next day as November 12 that year was the end of Ramadan.
The military and police in Sulu claimed Lumawag was killed by members of the “Urban Terrorist Group” of the Abu Sayyaf, naming the suspects as the Sailani brothers – Iting and Omar.
Five days after the killing, the police filed a complaint of murder against the brothers and the following month, the prosecutor’s office charged the brothers in court.
Task Force Newsman, the body tasked to look into the killing of journalists, immediately stamped Lumawag’s case as “solved” because “it is now in the courts.”
The brothers were initially reported at large, one of them later reported killed but “resurrected” after the reward money for their capture was increased to P6 million, and killed again.
In early 2005, Reynaldo Wycoco, then director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), promised the Lumawag family and MindaNews that his office would conduct a “parallel investigation,” a promise that went unfulfilled. Wycoco suffered a massive stroke and died in late December 2005.
On November 9, 2005, then National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales promised Gene Boyd’s father, photojournalist Rene Lumawag, in front of other journalists in Davao City, that he would order a fresh probe into Gene Boyd’s case following reports received by the family and MindaNews that a military intelligence agent, acting on poor intelligence work, was the culprit.
Follow-up letters were sent to Gonzales from December 2005 to early 2007 and reminders were made during his Davao visits during that period but no reinvestigation was done.
On January 12, 2007, MindaNews sent another letter reminding Gonzales about the reinvestigation he promised. MindaNews also wrote the police chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Joel Goltiao, for a follow-up on the case.
Gonzales’ deputy director-general Milo Ibrado Jr. wrote on February 23, 2007, referring the request to Gen.Cesar Garcia, Jr., then Director General of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).
The NICA report said Lumawag was killed by the Sailani brothers.
Goltiao in a letter on March 23, 2007 said “the investigators believe that he (Gene Boyd) was suspected as a military intelligence agent and the identified suspects, Iting Sailani and Omar Sailani were known to be members of the ASG/UTG in Sulu Province and not as Intelligence Agents of the military.”
Goltiao said Iting Sailani was killed on August 12, 2006 when the police discovered the safehouse of Sailani and company in Zone III, Tulay, Jolo, Sulu. A joint police-military team went to the place and engaged the suspects in a “firefight that lasted for an hour which resulted in the killing of Iting Sailani and three other unidentified persons.” A policeman was killed and five from the government forces were injured.
“The other surviving suspect, Omar Sailani, is included in the watch list and still subject for manhunt,” Goltiao wrote.
But in early June 2007, barely three months after Goltiao’s letter, Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, then chief of the Western Mindanao Regional Police-Intelligence Division, announced in Zamboanga City that the reward money for the capture of the Sailani brothers had been raised to P3 million each, from a measly hundred thousand pesos each when Lumawag was killed in November 2004.
Iting Sailani, killed on August 12, 2006, according to the March 2007 letter of Goltiao, was, in Casimiro’s June 2007 announcement, “alive” with the reward money even raised to P3 million from P100,000 in November 2004.
Casimiro said the two brothers were classified as high profile criminals with the offer of P3 million reward each for information leading to their arrest. He said the brothers had topped the reward list of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines for their alleged involvement, among others, in an October 2006 operation that led to the death of 11 persons.
On June 21, 2007, two weeks after the announcement on the raising of reward money, the brothers were reported to have been killed in Basilan. There is no information on who claimed the P6 million reward money. (MindaNews)
