Task Force sends team to probe Davao media killings

MANILA, Philippines - The government inter-agency task force handling cases of unexplained killings of media workers and political activists has sent a team of investigators to Davao to investigate recent cases of media killings in the province.

Justice Undersecretary Ian Norman Dato, chair of Task Force 211, said the team is specifically tasked to “conduct a thorough investigation and immediate identification of the assailants in the recent killings involving media practitioners in the said place.”

Dato said that the task force would closely monitor developments in the cases of Desiderio Camangyan and Nestor Bedolido, including prosecution of the cases in courts.

Camangyan, radio commentator of Sunrise FM radio in Mati City, was gunned down while hosting a singing contest in Barangay Old Macopa in Manay town, Davao Oriental last June 14.

Barely a week after the incident, Bedolido, a writer for the local weekly Kastigador, was shot six times outside his karaoke pub in Digos City.

Records of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines show Bedolido’s death brought to 103 the number of media workers killed under the administration of outgoing President Arroyo.