BY CRIS DIAZ
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: Cong. Yevgeny Vincente Emano, of Misamis Oriental’s 2nd District, offered P 500,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest of the suspects in the shooting to death of broadcaster Federico “Ding” Gempesaw here Wednesday morning.
In a statement released Thursday, Emano said that the members of the Padayon Pilipino, a local political party, is raising the reward money to speed up the arrest of the gunmen and bring justice to the family of Gempesaw.
Emano decried the killing of Gempesaw describing it as an act of “cowardice” by the culprits who could not take criticisms by the adversarial media.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the murder of a broadcast journalist, Ding Gempesaw while we urged the police to resolve the case without fear or favor and bring the perpetrators behind bars,“ said Art Bonjoc, Jr., former Chair of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) here.
Frank Mendez, the incumbent President of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, called for the early resolution of the Gempesaw killing while exhorting the local media to unite to denounce and resist the muzzling of the media.
A staunch supporter of the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign and anti corruption in the government service, Gempesaw was a veteran broadcaster.
A former head of the City’s Economic Enterprise Dep’t (CEED) here prior to his early retirement in 2013, Gempesaw has since then went into full time radio commentator.
P/Maj. Mario N. Mantala, chief of the Carmen police station here, said on Thursday that the police were conducting hot pursuit and follow up operations to arrest the possible suspects.
The suspects who were riding in tandem on a motorcycle shot Gempesaw as he stepped out of his taxicab in front of his house in Macanhan, Carmen, this city Wednesday morning.
He said that the police recovered two empty shells of spent caliber.45 pistol in the crime scene.
“We are collating all videos that could have been recorded by circuit cameras along the escaped route of the possible suspects, “ Mantala said.
He said that the police have yet to identify the suspects and the possible motive of the shooting.-0-
