‘His voice is now
louder than ever’

“They tried to silence him, but his voice is now louder than ever!”

So said Mika Ortega, upon seeing the thousands of people who came to pay their respects to her murdered father, Palawan-based journalist and environmentalist Gerardo Ortega.

When Doc Gerry, as the popular broadcaster was called, was finally laid to rest Monday, his hometown of Aborlan was at a standstill. At the Aborlan public market, vendors stopped their business and stood at attention as the hearse bearing Doc Gerry’s casket passed on the way to the public cemetery.

People from all over the province came to attend his funeral, living testaments to the impact he had on the lives of thousands here. There were politicians, mediamen, environmentalists, tribal leaders, and even bikers.

At the cemetery, thousands more gathered to pay their respects to one of the few Palawan journalists who had the courage and the ability to set the environmental agenda for the province.

The young, the aged, and the able peered through a wire fence into the private lot where the murdered journalist was to be buried. At times, the press of the crowd threatened to make the fence collapse.

Doc Gerry was shot dead by a gunman last January 24, after he stopped by a “wagwagan” or a second-hand store while on the way to his nearby pet store.

Luckily, the gunman was arrested by a combined team of police and firemen who just happened to be passing through when the crime was committed. The incident was also captured on close circuit television cameras recently installed by the city government.

Police now suspect that senior Palawan officials were responsible for hiring the gunman. The lookout used in the murder had already been arrested, and police are tracking down other members of the group to establish the identity of the mastermind.

The primary key to the case so far is the gun used in the murder. The serial number of the .45 caliber pistol was traced to Atty. Romeo Seratubias, the former provincial administrator. For his part, Seratubias claimed he had previously sold the gun to a Percival Lecias, an employee in the provincial capitol. Curiously, the only evidence of the sale that Seratubias could produce was a handwritten note declaring that he was selling the gun to Lecias for P20,000.

Doc Gerry was known in the province for his hard-hitting commentaries on environmental degradation and local corruption. His primetime radio program over local radio DYAR was arguably the most popular radio show in the province.

Many local officials and journalists would tune in to Doc Gerry’s radio program, which had effectively set the local agenda for the week. Gerry was the second Palawan journalist to be murdered in the past five years. In 2006, a gunman had also shot dead popular radio commentator Fernando “Dong” Batul. The gunman was arrested and is now facing murder charges, but the mastermind is still to be identified.