ARAYAT, Pampanga — A footage from a CCTV camera has indicated that the killing of a columnist-reporter of the tabloid Remate and his companion here last Sunday was related to the operation of a local carnival or “perya.”
Police probers, in the presence of officials from the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), have examined the footage that revealed that Remate columnist Jupiter Gonzalez, 52, and his companion Christopher Tiongson were apparently transacting with a personnel from the local “perya” inside their car when they were shot.
The suspect, who was not immediately identifi ed by probers and remained at large yesterday, was noted to have remained in their car for four minutes before the first shot rang out.
The CCTV footage also revealed that the suspect then emerged from the car and tried to take over the car by pushing Gonzales away from the driver’s seat, but the car sped off and hit a nearby plant box, as the suspect then fled.
Police said residents in the area found Tiongson apparently already lifeless, while Gonzalez was still breathing despite bullet wounds in their heads. Both, however, were declared dead at the Arayat district hospital. PTFoMS executive director Undersecretary Jose Joel Sy Egco, who also writes a column for Remate, earlier said Gonzales “was known for being a staunch critic of illegal gambling proliferating in local carnivals, or peryahan or pergalan in street parlance.”
Egco noted that “The PTFoMS presumes any form of media violence as work-related, until further investigation proves otherwise.”
“The Task Force (TF) is on top of the situation and is closely coordinating with the authorities regarding this incident and follow-up investigations are being closely monitored,” Egco said in a statement.
