Cebu Tri-Media leader assails pressman's slay

CEBU CITY . BOHOLANO leader of Cebu Tri-Media Association assailed the latest killing of a journalist, which has become more a statistic in a long list of unsolved murder involving media personnel. Andy Manatad said while there is time, police and the entire community should band together to assail this type of "silencing the media". While he said whether the killing of 45-year-old Albert Orsolino is work-related or not, the fact remains that more than a hundred journalists have been killed in the country since 1986.

The count, he said, is staggering considering there is no state of war that exists in the country. The media group leader said the killings of journalists may be magnified by the media coverage it gets—more importantly killings such as those purportedly being done by alleged vigilantes should not be tolerated and must be stopped.

Killings in general, especially as sensational as these, tend to scare away investors to the detriment of the economy. "We are a society of laws not of men," he said. "If we want to get justice let's go to court. Let the law takes its due course."

He added the killing of media members only exacerbate the fact that our criminal justice system grinds at a snail's pace—giving confidence to lawless elements that they could get away with murder. Orsolino was gunned down last week and is the latest in the growing list of journalists killed. Reports said Orsolino was shot by two unidentified men on a motorcycle and killed him near a gas station along C-4 road in Kaunlaran Village in Caloocan City .

Orsolino used to report for a Filipino-language tabloid covering the Malacañang beat and was reportedly on his way to his beat when death caught him. He died from a lone gunshot wound in the abdomen.

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