13th JOURNALIST KILLED

Kalinga-based journalist murdered

BAGUIO CITY -- A young journalist working for a
local newspaper in Tabuk, Kalinga, was found
dead by residents near the Tabuk Central School
on Wednesday, five days after he was said to
have been abducted.

The body of Stephen Omaois, 24, which bore
head injuries and tortured marks, was formally
identified by his relatives Thursday morning at a
funeral parlor in Tabuk, the capital town of Kalinga.

Kalinga Police Director James Dogao believed
Omaois, who was working as a writer for Guru
News Weekly, a six-month-old local newspaper,
was hit with huge stones until he died.

Omaois's body also bore torture marks, was
defaced and unidentifiable, and starting to bloat
when found.

A task force was already formed to determine the
motive behind Omaois's murder and identify his
killers.

Dogao initially believed the killing was not job-
related, although a report from the local National
Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)
quoted residents as saying "there was already an
earlier threat from unknown people against
Omaois related to the exercise of his profession
as a journalist."

Omaois, who also worked as a stringer of the
government-run dzRK Radyo ng Bayan-Tabuk,
has been writing on developmental and
community issues for Guru for five months now,
according to his editor Dr. Estefania Kollin.

The NUJP Baguio-Benguet, meanwhile,
condemned Omaois's killing and tagged it as an
attack against press freedom and people's right to
information.

"We join our colleagues in urging the Philippine
National Police and concerned agencies in the
area to conduct an impartial investigation for the
immediate disposal of justice for the death of
Omaois," NUJP Baguio-Benguet chairman
Artemio Dumlao Jr. said in a statement.

NUJP national chair Inday Espina-Varona,
meanwhile, stressed, "the murder and torture of
Omaois--the 13th this year--highlights how inutile
law enforcers have become in the face of
criminality."

"The murder of Omaois, who was on the trail of
corruption charges involving a public works project
in Pinukpuk town, should disabuse our law
enforcers of the notion that slain journalists had it
coming," she added.

"Top PNP officials, including Director-General
Edgar Aglipay, have hinted that lack of fairness in
reportage and the lack of discipline on matters of
security are major factors in the murders of
journalists. Aglipay is wrong. Omaois and several
victims of the record violence hounding the
Philippine media were 'guilty' of trying to ferret out
the interlocking directorates of misgovernance
and criminality in their communities," the
statement said.

The Omaois family migrated from Mountain
Province and established residence in
Casigayan, Tabuk, Kalinga. (Cheryl G. Cruz)
-SUNSTAR BAGUIO