CABANATUAN CITY -- Police authorities said Special Investigation Task Force Cruz is still gathering evidence that will lead to the arrest of the killer of a Nueva Ecija local newspaper publisher.
Senior Supt. Ricardo Marquez, Nueva Ecija provincial director, told newsmen, “We have very good leads in the killing of Cruz and just documenting them.”
Marquez said that SITF-Cruz is still interviewing witnesses and gathering more evidence that could lead to the immediate arrest of the gunman.
He said to date, the motive in the killing of Edilberto Cruz, publisher of a local tabloid Salida “is very personal.”
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As soon as possible, we will know the identity of the suspect and the real motive in the killing,” Marquez said.
On Sunday, Cruz was on board his motorcycle on his way home when he was ambushed along Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Juan Accfa, Cabanatuan City.
Cruz was immediately taken to the MV Gallego Cabanatuan City Hospital but died while undergoing treatment.
Marquez said medico legal personnel extracted the slug still embedded on the victim’s head for ballistics and caliber identification for comparison of other slugs/evidence recovered from the crime scene.
According to police investigators, Regina, wife of the victim, alleged that she did not know that her husband was a publisher of Salida.
The victim’s wife also told police that her husband has allegedly had an affair with a former freelance local radio host whose live-in partner was also slain in 2007.
Police investigators are not ruling out the possibility that Cruz’s murder was work-related.
Cruz led Salida in reporting stories primarily on economic development in Nueva Ecija.
Investigators are conducting a ballistics test to trace the origin of the bullet taken from Cruz’s head.
Armand Galang, president of the Nueva Ecija Press Club, however, told police that Cruz was not a member of their organization or the National Press Club.
Chief Supt. Alan Purisima, Central Luzon police director, ordered Marquez to report any development on the case.
Cruz was the latest victim in a wave of killings involving journalists.
International groups have ranked the Philippines among the high-risk countries for journalists.
Last month, Miguel Belen, 48, a reporter of radio station dwEB, was ambushed by unidentified men in Nabua, Camarines Sur.
A week earlier, Jose Daguio, 72, a reporter of a community newspaper, was killed in his house in Tabuk City, Kalinga.
Daguio was the first recorded journalist to be killed under the Aquino administration, and possibly the oldest to be slain in the line of duty.
Over 100 journalists have been killed in the country, mostly during the nine-year administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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