P400,000 reward up for arrest of broadcaster's killers

REWARD money offered for information that could lead to the arrest of the killer of dzME radio broadcaster Marlina Flores-Sumera is now at P400,000 after a lawmaker offered an additional P250,000.

Josephine Lacson-Noel, the lawmaker representing Malabon City where Sumera was shot, offered the additional P250,000, which she said could "encourage witnesses to come forward with information and assist us in serving her family the justice they deserve."

Sumera was gunned down last Thursday morning on her way to dzME studios in Caloocan City for her hosting duties in "Arangkada 1530."

Earlier, Malabon City Mayor Canuto Oreta offered P100,000 after the National Press Club (NPC) and Alyansa ng Filipinong Mamamahayag (Afima) offered a P50,000 reward for information that will help solve the killing of Sumera.

"Sumera's untimely death is a reminder of the continued challenges to our national security.

We must step up our commitment to make our country safe for our journalists and for women...This crime shall not go unnoticed.

We shall not rest until this heinous crime is solved," said Noel.

"I salute her contribution to our community as a courageous journalist, staunch advocate of the urban poor, wife and mother. She will not be forgotten," she added. Sumera is the first female and fourth journalist slain under President Benigno Aquino III's 10-month rule.

Gabriela Representative Emmi de Jesus said in a press statement that Sumera's death adds a female face to the gradual death of press freedom under the administration of Aquino if he does not do anything about the continuing killings of journalists.

"As the government continues to fail in preventing the elite sectors of our society to extinguish the fire of freedom of information that our journalists are duty-bound to carry, the country will fall into the abyss of lies that the powerful and the corrupt wants us to believe," she said.

"At this point in time when too many journalists have shed blood in the name of truth and information, it is also about time that Malacañang show its political will in pushing the Congress to finally pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act when it resumes session in May," De Jesus stressed.

Last Congress, the House leadership failed to pass the FOI measure on third and final reading. The FOI bill will allow journalists and ordinary Filipinos to easily acquire information about government officials and policies. The said measure is now pending before the House Committee on Public Information. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)