NUJP-Davao condemned “in the strongest way possible” the murder Lintuan, the first president of the Davao Sportswriters Association. Lintuan was also an official of the Philippine Sports Commission at the time of his death, the NUJP-Davao said.
Two other broadcasters, Louie Ceniza and Edgar Banzon were with him in the car.
NUJP-Davao said there was an earlier attempt on the life of Lintuan, in the late 1980s when he and other broadcasters were shot at inside the announcer’s booth of DXRA radio station.
“The killing of Mr. Lintuan only shows how barbaric this society has become and how dangerous it is for members of the Fourth Estate to do their duties in this part of the globe,” NUJP-Davao said in a statement signed by its president, Carmelito Q. Francisco.
“This is doubly sorrowful for the media community here considering that Batman was murdered on the eve of Christmas Day that while other people are celebrating the nativity, his family will lose its only breadwinner as the late broadcaster lost his wife to cancer a few years ago,” it said.
“The late broadcaster was known for his stinging commentaries against erring politicians, backing this up with good research and evidence,” the statement added.
Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles said Lintuan was a “hard-hitting no-nonsense investigative radio anchorman who says on the air in his own radio program news and info which others only whisper and silently talk about in coffee, beer and barber shops. He was not afraid to criticize and hit wrongdoings in Davao City.”
NUJP-Davao called on authorities to “conduct an in-depth probe on the killing of Mr. Lintuan and bring those people involved to the bar of justice.”
Nograles also called on “all our local and national enforcement authorities to do their jobs and get to the bottom of this brutal murder and not to stop till we find out who did it.”
Lintuan left behind four children, the eldest of whom is 20, the youngest, 10. (MindaNews)
