📷Former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the Department of Justice (DOJ) would file a murder case against former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes for his alleged connection with the killing of broadcast journalist Gerry Ortega in 2011.
“Ipupursue namin ng prosecution. Kasi hindi naman itutuloy yan kung wala si (Reyes),” Remulla told reporters in a chance interview with reporters on Thursday, September 12.
The former governor – who is currently confined in a hospital in Quezon City – turned himself in before the NBI headquarters in Metro Manila, said the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) on a Facebook post.
Remulla claimed NBI staff members were already monitoring Reyes even prior to the public announcement of this development as a regional trial court (RTC) in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, issued an arrest warrant against Reyes in 2023.
Reyes, his brother former Coron mayor Mario Reyes, and eight others are all charged with murder in connection with Ortega’s death.
Remulla said has not yet received information on why Reyes surrendered.
“The whole time, actually, na hindi pa ina-announce ‘yan, he was already under hospital confinement, tsaka may naka bantay na sa kanya na NBI,” he added.
According to the PTFoMS, Ortega was a “well-known critic of local government corruption during the term of Reyes.”
The Reyes brothers were first cleared of any involvement in Ortega’s death, but in March 2012, that decision was overturned and charges were brought against them.
Reyes was released in 2018 after the court voided the case against him, but the charges were brought back almost two years later. In July 2023, the SC told the Puerto Princesa Regional Trial Court to arrest Reyes again.
The Supreme Court ordered Reyes’ re-arrest after ruling that the courts did not commit grave abuse of discretion in finding the former governor responsible for Ortega’s death.
The high court also allowed his trial to be moved from Palawan to a court in Quezon City earlier this year. Reyes is also being charged with graft by the Sandiganbayan for allegedly misusing Malampaya funds. (TCSP)
