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The remaining witness to a journalist's killing in 2002 survived a third slay attempt on 9 February 2004, just five days before the burial of the second witness, gunned down early on the same month.
Edgar Ongue, the only person alive among the three witnesses to the 13 May 2002 killing of Pagadian journalist Edgar Damalerio, was to receive his P6,000 (about $110) monthly financial support from the government's Department of Justice (DOJ) because he was under the department's witness protection program. In an interview with the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) in a remote location, he said he was to get the money from a DOJ branch in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental province, which is about 675 kilometers south of the nation's capital Manila.
Together with a companion, they arrived at Tangub City at around 10:10 pm (local time). When the pair was there in the city, several unknown men approached Ongue's companion, inquiring about Ongue. Ongue felt that the unknown men would try to kill him, so he shot at them, and was able to escape. Despite the incident, Ongue, who is presently hiding in a remote area, is still willing to testify as long as adequate protection is given to him.
Ongue and his family regularly received death threats by short messaging service (SMS) and unknown men
were seen trailing them. His wife narrowly escaped an abduction attempt by unidentified men. An unknown man was about to enter his house on February 8, a day before the Tangub incident, and only left when Ongue shot at him.
The incident happened just a few days before the burial of Edgar Amoro, the second witness to the Damalerio case, who was shot dead on February 2. Juri Ladica (named as Juvy Lobitaņa in some reports), who had information about the mastermind of the murder, was killed while on board a trycicle in Pagadian City. Ladica had been approached as possible witness in the Damalerio case.
Damalerio, was a radio, print, and television journalist killed on Pagadian City on 13 May 2002 while driving his jeep from a press conference when shot at close range by two men on board a motorcycle.
Amoro and Ongue were riding along with Damalerio when the incident happened, and positively identified the killer as then policeman Guillermo Wapile, who has a notorious criminal record, including car theft and robbery at gunpoint.
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