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UPDATE: Esperat case
April 10, 2008
DA official accused in journalist's
murder survives grenade attack
KIDAPAWAN CITY (April 10/Thursday) – A ranking official of the agriculture department in central Mindanao who was among those accused in the killing of journalist Marlene Esperat survived another grenade attack last Tuesday, April 8.
Osmeña Montaner, finance director of the Dept of Agriculture in Region 12 (DA-12), said the incident was the third attempt on his life since last year.
Montaner's house in Cotabato City was bombed in 2007 and another last January, when court hearings of the murder case filed against him and another DA-12 official by relatives of Esperat, a local newspaper columnist based in Sultan Kudarat, were ongoing.
Montaner said he knew who was behind the attack and that those who lobbed the grenade were just hired to silence him.
He, however, refused to divulge to media the identity of the "mastermind".
It was around 7 p.m. and Montaner and his family were about to start their evening prayer in a mosque inside his compound when an unidentified suspect lobbed a fragmentation grenade that immediately went off.
No one was hurt, according to Chief Supt. Willie Dangane, chief of the Cotabato City PNP. Dangane said the suspects were probably riding a motorcycle.
In January this year, a grenade was planted on Montañer's car while it was parked at the DA office along Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City.
Last year, a fragmentation grenade was also lobbed at his residence and went off but no one was hurt.
Report submitted by Malu Cadelina Manar (NUJP-Kidapawan)