Indignant journalists, joined by concerned socio-civic organizations and like-minded citizens of Davao del Norte, have staged a protest rally to denounce the unabated spate of killings, including that of an editor-publicist of a local newspaper, and some political elders in the province.
The protesters cried out for immediate solutions to the unsolved killings, to serve justice to the victims and their grieving families and relatives, and to bring the seeming crime wave to an end.
One of the latest victims was Dennis Denora, 67, who was gunned down on June 7 in broad daylight in Panabo City by two motorcycle-riding suspects in what was largely believed to be an offshoot of his calling as a hard-hitting mediaman.
Initial police reports reaching the Presidential Task Force on Media Security indicated that the assassination of Denora was in apparent retaliation over his series of stories extremely critical about the “failed promises of a powerful politician” based in Davao City.
The attack on Denora was the second high-profile slaying to hit Davao del Norte in as many weeks.
Just a week earlier, Councilman Santos Samoranos, 65, of Barangay La Paz in Carmen town was waylaid while on his way to the town proper. He died at the District Hospital despite the doctors’ efforts to save his life.
On July 3 last year Dexter Welborn, also a councilman of the Visayan Village in Tagum City, was shot dead by two gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle in Purok Matinabangon that was right within his jurisdiction.
Welborn ran for a congressional seat against Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez in the 2016 polls.
Just four months earlier, on February 19, 2017, two hit men fired at close range on former provincial agrarian reform official Nicasio Lemente, 68, of Mankilam, Tagum City.
Lemente and his wife were on their way home after attending Mass when the killers, who were waiting for him in front of a drug store, accosted him, then opened fire.
On January 4, 2017, a gunman shot dead Jecris Compuesto, a barber in Pagsabangan, Tagum City, in the presence of his pregnant wife and customers who were all shocked by the audacity of the attack.
The killer quickly joined an accomplice who was waiting outside with a motorcycle for their getaway.
What was appalling for the rallyists was the fact that most of the victims were helpless senior citizens.
On the other hand, the killers operated in similar fashions; firing at point-blank range and using a motorcycle to escape.