By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Buried in the noisy run-up to last Sunday’s anti-corruption rally was a quieter but no less urgent cry: justice for Juan “Johnny” Dayang, as posted by his son Jed.
Dayang, 89, a former mayor, was an exemplary journalist. Widely acknowledged as the father of the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI), he led an institution that has kept regional newspapers alive and active as watchdogs of governance in the country. That he was gunned down in his Kalibo home last April is not just a tragedy, but an assault on the media profession.
Police files will tell you that the gunman in a black jacket and helmet who took his life on the morning of April 29 was a trained hitman. Police declared the case “cleared” by June, citing the identification of the gunman, even if no arrests had been made and no mastermind had been identified.
Firing Line has learned that investigators indeed traced the killer through CCTV footage — from the rented motorcycle he rode, the hotel where he stayed, and even the flight he boarded from Manila to Iloilo. My sources say there was more: an online cash transfer, allegedly from the mastermind, used to buy the gunman’s plane ticket.
That payment trail exists. But a court order is needed before the e-payment firm will release the identity of the payor and the string of other suspicious transactions linked to the hitman. I also have sources saying the gunman was tapped from Cavite, but his movements before the hit included trips to Negros Oriental, where he may have ties to a notorious private army of an infamous politician.
Without the gunman being arrested, is this not a cold case? For this gunman to be out of reach of arresting authorities till now is bizarre. Either he is untouchable, which I highly doubt, or his contractor had already ordered a hit on him, too. I hope I’m wrong.
But this is why I dare the Department of Justice (DOJ) to follow the money trail, compel the disclosure of those e-payment records, unmask the financiers, and bring the mastermind to light. For Johnny Dayang’s sake. For journalism’s sake. For justice’s sake.
* * *
SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X app (formerly Twitter). Read current and past issues of this column at https://www.thephilbiznews.com