KBP Cebu Chairman Edward Abad believed that Judge Ireneo Lee Gako made the right decision when he imposed the death sentence on Edgar Belandres.

He said that the death penalty could become a deterrence to those who are planning to inflict violence on members of the media.

He said that this is a welcome development and he hopes that this would now embolden his fellow workers in the media to do their responsibility without being intimidated by threats.

Abad also said that he looks forward that the same justice be served for other journalists in the country who had been killed.

Junrey Nadela, president of the Malacañang sa Sugbo Press Corps, said that the media has been waiting for justice to be served for the two slain Cebuano journalists, Dizon and George Benaojan.

"We believe in the decision (of Judge Gako)," said Nadela.

But some 200 supporters of Belandres held a silent rally in front of the Palace of Justice to express their sentiments over the alleged wrong decision of Judge Gako.

Carrying placards that claimed Belandres’ innocence, the protesters, led by Belandres’ daughter Stephanie, gathered at the Palace of Justice but did not make noise that would disrupt the operation at the courts.

Most of the protesters are neighbors of Belandres in Barangay Lorega. All of them claimed they could not believe it was Belandres who shot Dizon, saying the murder convict is "a good man with a good heart" who has been doling out his money to those who approached him for help.

Last week, Judge Gako found Belandres guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. The judge also ordered Belandres to indemnify the victim’s family in the amount of R550,000.

The trial and verdict, however, did not establish the motive for the killing or whether the death of Dizon, a staff photographer-reporter of The Freeman, was work-related.

Dizon was chased and shot several times on Nov. 27, 2004 on S. Soriano St. in the North Reclamation Area where he had apparently gone to meet someone.

The attack shocked Cebu media people because it was the first murder of a local journalist since the early 1980s.

The resolution of the case came swiftly — 13 months after the killing – if it is compared with the slow pace in the proseuction of the murders of other Filipino journalists which have remained unsolved.

It was the first time Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. meted the death penalty since he took as presiding judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 5 in 1997.

The judge said he had no reason to doubt the testimonies of three witnesses who were present when the shooting took place.

The accounts of Justiniano Doller, Epifanio Barcoma and Alma Doller Maravilles, all dispatchers, were "spontaneous, straightforward, and animated," he noted.