TWO MEN on a motorcycle shot a radio broadcaster on 17 May 2003 in Lucena City, Quezon province, south of Manila. The murder happened less than three weeks after a similar tandem gunned down another broadcaster in Legazpi City, Albay.

Thirty-five-year-old Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda, an announcer of local radio station DWTI-AM, was on his way to the station at around 5:45 a.m. when two men on a black motorcycle stopped him. The unknown assailants, who were waiting for the broadcaster in the area, shot Pobeda several times. The reports quoted local police as saying that one of the suspects even alighted from the motorcycle and shot the broadcaster at close range.

The Manila newspaper “Today” said Pobeda “sustained seven gunshot wounds, one in the head and six in different parts of his body.”

Pobeda was one of the three hosts of the radio program Nosi Ba Lasi (“Who are they?”). According to “Today”, the announcer started hosting the program two years ago. Last year, two other broadcasters including a former town councilor joined Pobeda as program co-hosts.

The “Philippine Daily Inquirer” quoted Pobeda’s wife Rowena Morales as saying the “victim had been receiving death threats for some time now.”

“Today” also quoted Morales as saying that Pobeda’s latest death threat “was just a month ago” and that “a gunman [had been] hired at P200,000 (around US$3850) to kill Pobeda.”

“I warned him to… lie low for a while but he just ignored my pleas. (He said) there was nothing personal in what he had been doing (and that it) was just part of his job,” the “Inquirer” quoted Morales.

Pobeda “was declared dead at Lucena’s Quezon Memorial Hospital,” the “Inquirer” reported.

Possible motives for the killing
The motive for the killing is unknown. But several possible motives have been suggested, including one linking Lucena City Mayor Ramon Talaga, Jr. in the killing of Pobeda.

Pobeda, news reports said, regularly criticized city government officials, including Talaga, in his radio commentaries. The “Inquirer” said Pobeda “had been accusing Talaga of alleged corruption and involvement in the illegal drug trade.”

Talaga, in the same “Inquirer” article, denied any involvement in Pobeda’s murder.

“For the past two years, my family had been Polly’s target of so many defamatory tirades and blind items. But we maintained our cool because we understood the dynamics of the local media. Polly served as a very willing pawn of my political detractors,” the “Inquirer” quoted Talaga as saying.

Joselito Ojeda, owner of ConAmor Broadcasting System which operates radio stations DWTI-AM and DWKI-FM and television station Channel 8, was quoted by “Today” as saying Talaga “has been resenting the constant sniping against him” in Pobeda’s program.

“Today” said that ConAmor, “whose broadcasters are critical of Quezon governor Willie Enverga and Talaga, has been the subject of harassment by the local government.”

Last 4 October 2002, Ojeda accused Talaga of “harassment and political vendetta” in connection with the closure of the company’s radio and television stations by the city government. ConAmor later continued operations but moved its facilities outside the city proper.

The victim also allegedly criticized the communist rebel group New People’s Army (NPA) several times in his program. But the NPA, the “Inquirer” said, has denied allegations linking the group to the announcer’s murder.

“His tirades against the revolutionary movement had nothing to do with us. I don’t even know the guy,” Gregorio Rosal was quoted as saying.

Rosal is the spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP.

Pobeda’s killing occurred after a radio announcer was also killed in Legazpi City, Albay province on 28 April 2003. DZGB-AM broadcaster John Belen Villanueva Jr. was on his way home from his station on his motorcycle at around 7 a.m. when two armed men aboard another motorcycle shot him.

Pobeda, said the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc. (FFFJ), was the 38th journalist to be killed in the line of duty since 1986.

The FFFJ was recently organized to address the numerous attacks against journalists and news organizations around the country. It is made up of media NGOs, including CMFR, and concerned individuals. .

Source:Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)