Press Release
November 18, 2008

PIMENTEL CONDEMNS KILLING MINDANAO BROADCASTER

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today condemned the slaying of broadcast journalist Aristeo Padrigao based in Gingoog City.

Pimentel said the death of Padrigao should serve as a grim reminder that journalists and other persons fighting for a just cause are putting their lives on the line in the absence of a semblance of protection from law enforcement authorities.

"I condemn the killing of radioman Aristeo Padrigao and I call on the police to immediately arrest and prosecute the killers. This is another blot in the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo," he said.

Padrigao, a blocktimer and radio show host of DxRS Radyo Natin and columnist in the Mindanao Monitor Today was shot and killed by two assassins riding in tandem on a motorcycle. He was gunned down at the gate of a school Monday morning in Gingoog City after dropping his seven-year old daughter from a motorcycle that he himself drove.

He was the 60th journalist to be killed in the country since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001. He was 120th victim of extra-judicial killings since the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.

His media colleagues in Misamis Oriental said the murder of Padrigao could be due to his incessant criticisms of illegal logging activities.

Pimentel said if there is no end to the senseless killings of journalists, it is because the perpetrators have been emboldened by the failure of law enforcers to solve past cases of media slayings and to arrest and prosecute the culprits.

He challenged the law enforcement authorities to exert more efforts in breaking up gun-for-hire syndicates and in filing criminal cases against the mercenary hit men.

Ultimately, Pimentel said it is public welfare that suffers from the series of media killings because of their effects in undermining the freedom of the press.

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