JUST TWO weeks after the Jan. 24 murder of broadcaster and environmentalist Dr. Gerry Ortega in Puerto Princesa, Mayor Edward Hagedorn dramatically announced to the press that the crime had been solved—swiftly as he had vowed over Ortega’s grave.  Most of the media would buy Hagedorn’s claims hook, line and sinker.

Hagedorn pointed the finger at his political rival, former Palawan Gov. Joel T. Reyes.  He claimed that one Rodolfo Edrad, who he alleged was Reyes close-in aide, had surrendered to him and confessed to have hired the killer upon the ex-governor’s orders. He had even given, using Hagedorn’s words, “a blow-by-blow account” of how Reyes ordered the murder.

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