DAVAO CITY – Dumaguete City Radio broadcaster Cornelio Pepino was killed Tuesday night after he finished his radio broadcast in DYMD. Dumaguete police have yet to identify his assailants as of press time.
Vice Mayor Alan Gen Cordova and the City Council have asked Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo to offer a PHP1-million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of perpetrators behind the death of radio anchor Cornelio Pepino and other media practitioners.
The request was made through a resolution passed by the city council during its regular session Wednesday afternoon.
Pepino, also known as Rex Cornelio was a radio reporter/anchor of said station. He was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-riding suspects along the national highway in Barangay Daro here around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage of the city government’s security cameras showed a series of events that led to Pepino’s death. The CCTV footages gathered by the police and some officials show two motorcycle-riding suspects covered their faces aside from wearing a full-faced helmet tailed the broadcaster when he went out from the station after his program.
“This is not only for the personal application of media practitioners but for the constitutional guarantees and mandate of the freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” said Cordova.
“It is not just you who becomes fearful for your lives, but also us politicians as well as the public at large,” he added.
Through the resolution, the council is hoping that justice will be served to Pepino, and the deaths of Edmund Sestoso and Dindo Generoso, also radio broadcasters.
Sestoso was killed in 2018 and Generoso in late 2019.
Cordova said the same resolution would be sent to the Senate president and the House Speaker for reconsideration. -with PNA
