BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya–The family of a slain Kalinga-based journalist is seeking police protection amid reports that some of them were receiving threats following their patriarch’s murder.
Chief Inspector Glen Ganpac, police chief of Kalinga’s Tabuk City capital, said that family members of the late Jose Daguio, especially his son Joey, have been seeking assistance for security in the wake of threats they have been receiving following Daguio’s slay.
“In fact, (Daguio’s) family has already left their place due to threats. His son Joey is now in our custody for his safety,” the police said.
Daguio, 75, the first journalist killed under the Aquino regime, was a former broadcaster of dzRK Radyo Natin-Kalinga. He was a member of the Kalinga Media Board at the time of his slay.
Joey reportedly saw the gunman of his father, who was shot on the chest at close range with a shotgun inside their house in Tabuk’s Barangay Tuga on the evening of July 3.
Over the week, the body of Daguio’s alleged triggerman, Lando Bilog, was found along the remote Isabela-Kalinga border.
Bilog’s death, police said, came as the court was set to release the arrest warrant against him and the four other suspects in Daguio’s slay - Edmund Bilog, Willy Bilog, Daldin Guilawan and Edgar Guilawan.
Daguio, initial reports indicated, got the ire of the suspects, who were allegedly involved in cattle rustlings, after suspecting him of being a police informer.
While not discounting the possibility that Bilog’s killing could also has something to do with Daguio’s slay, authorities said that one possible motive in Bilog’s death could be love triangle. They however, failed to elaborate.
Other sources also claimed that Bilog’s gruesome killing may be some form of revenge by individuals or groups angered by Daguio’s slay. Likewise, Bilog’s killing, they feared, could further trigger violence among sympathizers of the Daguios and the suspects. CCL