CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 6 November) — Police investigators are eyeing land dispute as among the possible motives for the killing of Misamis Occidental broadcaster Juan Jumalon, as authorities released Monday the facial composite of one of the three suspects in the gruesome murder.
Jumalon’s killing was captured live on the Facebook page of 94.7 Gold FM station owned by the victim, when a gunman barged in and shot him twice on the head last Sunday.
Colonel Dwight Donato, Misamis Occidental police director and head of the Special Investigation Task Group Jumalon, presented the facial composite of the suspect, who was seen on CCTV at the gate of the victim’s house in Purok 2, Barangay Bernardo A Neri in Calamba town last Sunday.
“He was the one who held the caretaker of Jumalon at gunpoint as seen in the CCTV,” Donato told reporters in Ozamiz City.
Donato said the police are eyeing land dispute as the possible motive of the murder, noting they learned that Jumalon filed criminal cases against two persons over a 400-square meter land in Calamba town.
But he did not discount the possibility the motive for the murder could be work-related.
Major Joanne Navarro, Police Regional Office 10 spokesperson, said the facial composite was made based on the testimonies of two witnesses and the CCTV camera at the house of the victim.
As this developed, Frank Mendez, president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, asked the government to allow journalists to arm themselves in the wake of the killing of Jumalon, also known as “DJ Johny Walker.”
If the police cannot protect journalists, they should be allowed to carry guns for self-protection, he added.
“Ease the requirements for gun applications and allow journalists the means to protect themselves,” Mendez said.
Mendez said that “hired killers are enjoying the impunity of killing journalists because of the inability of the police to protect them.”
“The killings must be stopped,” he said.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the brazen killing of Jumalon “may open the floodgates for the killings of more community journalists.”
The NUJP said Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be killed under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and the 199th to be killed in the country since 1986.
Meanwhile, Ronald Rufin, president of the Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas chapter in Cagayan de Oro, said the 94.7 Gold FM station owned by Jumalon is one of the 20 “illegal radio stations” found operating without a license by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in Region 10.
Rufin sad the NTC had issued a “cease and desist” order in 2021 for 94.7 Gold FM, “but for unknown reasons” still operates on air from Jumalon’s house in Calamba town.
He said Jumalon’s radio station has become “a new trend in the emergence of radio stations in the countryside, whose financial survival depended on how they market products such as soap, herbal oil and other health products.” (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
