Presidential Task Force on Media Security executive director Undersecretary Joel Egco (File photo)
MANILA -- A Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) top official denied the agency is into “framing up” people amid its quest for justice for slain media workers.
PTFoMS executive director Undersecretary Joel Egco issued the statement Sunday after the Department of Justice junked the motion for reconsideration of the alleged gunman in the slaying of radio broadcaster Christopher Lozada.
“The Task Force mandate is to protect the life, liberty, and security of media workers," Egco said in a statement.
“We are not in the business of framing up people. Also, we are going the extra mile with our mandate by regularly monitoring cases in our inventory,” he added.
Rolly Mahilum, the suspected gunman of Lozada, was arrested in March 2018 after Lozada’s live-in partner, Honey Faith Toyco, positively identified the suspect through the photos browsed from the victim’s laptop.
Egco earlier bared that Mahilum is the family driver and close aide of Bislig City Mayor Librado Navarro who had filed a libel case against Lozada in relation to the mayor’s supposed involvement in a questionable hydraulic excavator deal.
Lozada was driving home with Toyco when the former was shot dead in Coleta village in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur on Oct. 24, 2017.
Toyco sustained injuries but survived the shooting incident. She is now under the witness protection program of the Department of Justice.
Lozada had reportedly received threats from Navarro for filing a grave misconduct complaint against the mayor. The Office of the Ombudsman, in September 2017, ordered Navarro's removal from his post.
Navarro had denied hand in the killing of Lozada.
Mahilum filed an MR on Sept. 31, 2019, claiming that the allegation hurled against him was based on Egco’s “unfounded theory.”
Mahilum also alleged that Toyco has an ulterior motive to implicate him because the latter and Egco wanted to link Navarro as the mastermind in Lozada’s murder.
In a resolution dated Jan. 13, Surigao City acting prosecutor Joan Francis Alas-Esmero denied Mahilum’s motion because there was “no cogent reason” to reverse the ruling indicting the suspect for murder and frustrated murder.
Esmero also noted that the submitted evidence against Mahilum was sufficient to prove that the latter is one of the assailants. (PNA)
