By Diego Morra
The April 29, 2025 murder of Johnny Dayang right in his home in Kalibo, Aklan strikes terror among journalists in rural areas just as a local court this month acquitted those accused in the murder of Juan “Johnny Walker” Jumalon, who was also shot dead right in his broadcast booth at home while hosting an online show on Nov. 5, 2023.
Dayang is the latest casualty in the ongoing dance with death for many rural journalists, among them Salvador “Bubby” Dacer (along with his driver Emmanuel Corbito), who was killed on Nov. 20, 2020 in Indang, Cavite. Only one was convicted for their deaths, SPO3 Mauro Torres, who admitted strangling the victims and throwing their remains in a pyre. No mastermind was sentenced. Former president Erap Estrada and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and later Senator Ping Lacson were cleared (just as the latter was also cleared of the bloody Kuratong Baleleng massacre in Quezon City after witnesses retracted their testimonies).
Yet, Torres had to own the gruesome murder even if he were never familiar with the topnotch public relations (PR) operator Bubby Dacer, or Corbito, the driver who was a constant companion of Dacer. Bubby Dacer was a longtime president of the Federation of Provincial Clubs of the Philippines (FPPCC), which Dayang founded, who counted former president Fidel Ramos, Estrada, Lacson and other topnotch PNP officials as clients. He also represented foreign companies doing business with the government, including one then headed by an ex-member of the French Foreign Legion. Dacer was 66 at the time of his death.
There was also the case of Nicasio “Nick” Enciso, 67, who was murdered in May 1991 by two soldiers in Tagaytay City. He was a correspondent of the Manila Bulletin and Tempo and also president of the (FPCC) and the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Barangay (PKB, which made him close to the corridors of power during martial law, like Dacer and Dayang). It is tragic that Enciso and Dacer were murdered by state agents even as they had some influence with the government. One suspect in the Dacer-Corbito murders, former policeman William F. Reed III, was arrested in Jan. 2024 in Pulilan, Bulacan and his trial should be ongoing. Still, those who have been tried and convicted are the small guys, not the purported masterminds.
Dayang, who was once mayor of Kalibo, Aklan, outlived both Dacer and Enciso, occupying sensitive positions at Kapisanan ng Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP), becoming publisher of the Philippine Graphic and keeping his control of the FPPCC, where he once clashed with an eager-beaver provincial publisher who sought to lead the FPPCC and another publisher who continues to churn a weekly in Panay. He was 89 when two gunmen walked in on April 29, 2025, and shot him once in the neck and twice at the back, making sure that Dayang wouldn’t survive. As master theorist of mass killings, Rodrigo Duterte, argued: “Being a journalist does not exempt anyone from getting hit by determined gunmen.”
Dacer also clashed with other PR practitioners and even fellow journalists but he made peace with many of them at his haunts, the Manila Hotel, where he maintained his office and where he treated columnists, commentators, editors and reporters to tremendous supplies of cognac and steak. Dacer stunned a foreign businessman once when he claimed that he can do better business with government through him. Only that it would cost him an arm and a leg. Image building isn’t cheap, and sidling up to the powers-that-be in this benighted land costs millions. For this reason, Dacer, also known as the “man in white” tried to win as many friends as possible, including customs players who hated his guts. One time, he sought the purported author of a nasty “white paper” hitting him but was told curtly to look elsewhere. Black propaganda can damage his business.
On the other hand, Dayang kept his cool all the time, but expressed regret that his rival for FPPCC control had sneaked in a story in a newspaper he had considered to be the safest for him as it regularly runs his stories. He called up a section editor to inquire who did the piece and was told that it “was your favorite correspondent.” Dayang was flummoxed as he forgot that that there was a breach in his flank. Gently, like any lawyer does, he asked that a clarification be made. The editor said he can do the clarification immediately as the paper was not yet put to bed. Dayang then requested the editor to do the story. None came out as a clarification was his to make.
The murder of Dayang ended the gloating of Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) chief Jose Torres, who was more than pleased that not a single Filipino journalist was murdered last year, according to the global watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). With Dayang slay added, the Marcos Jr. administration’s death toll for journalists went up a tad higher at five. Dayang was president emeritus of the Publishers’ Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI) that he led for 20 years. Dayang served as president of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC), was a former director of the National Press Club (NPC) and founding president of the FPPCC. He was also the incumbent secretary of the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA). PTFoMS condemned the murder. “We stand in solidarity with the media community as we mourn the passing of Mr. Dayang, a figure regarded as a pillar of Philippine journalism whose contributions greatly enriched our democratic discourse,” Torres concluded. #
