Sealed by an Assassin’s Bullet

By Virgil B. Vallecera

May 13, 2002. A man was riding his vehicle along Pajares Street, Pagadian City. When, suddenly, a “law enforcer,” who was riding at the back of a motorcycle, shot the man dead in his vehicle, right at that moment. Few locals witnessed the incident, but fear struck the city of Pagadian as one of the witnesses was slaughtered. In light of it, the Supreme Court transferred the case here, in Cebu City, for immediate prosecution. Thus, the assassin was sentenced with a reclusion perpetua.

Justice did prevailed, but as long as the mastermind of the plot is still out there, only a fraction of justice is served.

Indeed, what a loss that was, not only to the present ballooning population of the Philippines, but above any other loss, it was a great loss of a father to a son/daughter; a husband to a wife; and a breadwinner to a family. However, one factor that anyone can, indeed, consider the incident as a great loss was that, the man who was shot dead had a noble job to a community: he was a radio broadcaster and commentator, a journalist per se. It is sad to admit, that the long list of victims in the raging war for the expression of truth and justice had been added with another fatality.

Mr. Edgardo Damalerio may have earned the ire of some people for exposing anomalies, which brought to the point, that they hired a gunman to fix things. Thus, they were successful for Damalerio’s asset of truth was sealed by an assassin’s bullet for eternity.

Truly, the fundamental phrase for journalist- that is, “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances”- has been neglected and has been thrown, with regards to the minds of abusive authorities or individuals, into the oblivion. It has been a grudge among journalists, who hold truths that are meant to be known by the public, whether there is a present war against the media or not. Some say, there is a war, for history tells that since the reign of late strongman Marcos, media killings has been rampant even nowadays. For as long as there are some people, who practice inconsistencies and faults and who can afford to hire men to do the “fixing,” no one can stop the numbers from increasing. It is just a matter of luck whether a media man can escape the rain of bullets, if not, the fate of death.

The administering of justice does play a part in the process, as it is called the “due process of law.” It is a good thing that the prosecutors and the presiding judge of the case here in Cebu did all their best to fulfill that concept. Probably, the reason why the case had to be transferred here is that, the judges in Pagadian may have neglected the concept. Yes, due process is only a concept for it is evident that few, if not many, tend to neglect it. We cannot but submit to the allegations that some judges do engage in questionable “process,” that is- under the table, over the table, beside the table, and in some cases, with the table.

Journalism is, indeed, a noble job for submitting to public trust does make someone honored to be one. On the contrary, journalism is also a critical job, if not a dangerous one, for along the submission of self for the information of the public is the vulnerability, if not, susceptibility to the ones hit.