Bataan newsman’s killers identified

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Police authorities are set to file murder charges against the two suspects in the killing of a journalist in Bataan last Saturday.

Senior Inspector Jhoanna Ponseca, chief of the Public Information Office-3, said that the Bataan police would file murder charges against Nestor Nazareno and Niel Ivan Sacartropes, both residents of Barangay Poblacion, Morong, Bataan.

A manhunt operation has been launched by Bataan police against the two suspects who were reportedly still in the province.

On Saturday, Garciano Aquino, a member of the Central Luzon Media Association (CLMA) and a former member of the dzRH Operation Tulong was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in Barangay Panibatuan, Morong town.

The victim was reportedly watching a cockfight in the said barangay when the gunmen approached him and shot him at close range.

Aquino, a resident of Barangay Binaritan, Morong town, wrote for the provincial news weekly Central Luzon Forum and a former contributor of Pilipino Reporter Magazine.

In his report, Superintendent Arnold Gunnacao, Bataan police deputy director for operations, said the gunmen were suspected to be members of the Rebolusyunaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB).

The RHB, a breakaway group of the New People’s Army (NPA), might have suspected Aquino of being a police informer as the victim was frequently seen visiting the police headquarters in Camp Tolentino in Balanga City, Gunnacao said.

Meanwhile, another member of CLMA, identified as Celso Medina, 42, a resident of Balsik, Hermosa, Bataan, died of heart failure at dawn on Sunday at the Dinalupihan District Hospital in Dinalupihan town.

Medina worked as correspondent for radio station dwIZ and was a former municipal councilor of Orani town.