How do we say goodbye to you Boyd?
It’s been three years since your assailant pulled the trigger in Jolo on November 12, 2004.
It is difficult to accept the fate that befell you so here we are, gathered today to share pieces of our memories of you. To many of us, you were not just a partner in coverage. You were a dear friend and touched the lives of journalists across the country.
It was your time Boyd, we gently let you go as you enjoy His
paradise, a place where there is no hurry to submit photos and where you can enjoy watching your favorite cartoons and play games online. No deadlines.
A year after the incident, murder charges were filed against two suspects. The police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said charges were filed in the office of the Sulu Provincial Prosecutor.
The head of the Task Force Lumawag then identified the suspects as Itting and Omar Sailani, both they said are members of the Abu Sayyaf group and wanted for kidnapping in Basilan in 2001. At that time they remained at large.
Two months later, then Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said Itting Sailani was wounded in an encounter with members of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 9 (MBLT9) in Bus-bus, Jolo but escaped.
In June 20, 2007, the military said your perpetrators were slain by intelligence operatives while bathing at a river in Barangay Baiwas, Sumisip, Basilan. They still insisted it was the Sailani brothers who killed you.
I remember you.
Joy and I were on our way home when my cellphone rang four years ago. It was Dennis Sabangan, European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) Philippines chief, on the other line. Dennis usually calls when news breaks out or if he needs to verify information. He broke the news of your death while Joy and I were onboard a public utility vehicle nearing Bankerohan Bridge.
Dennis said over and over again, you wanted to be the Robert Capa of the Philippines.
Two or three weeks before you were killed, we had an online chat, the longest we had since you included me in your friends’ list. You were your usual obnoxious but lovable self – a character which we find endearing and frustrating at the same time.
I called you Boyd. You called me Yosel.
An early achiever in your age, you traveled to the outskirts of Mindanao, far down South and around the globe. Your latest conquest was a European football-crazed country, including Netherlands and Germany where you spent your first snowy Christmas.
Before we had that chat, Atty. Wakang and I met you at the old MindaNews office in General Luna Street on October 8 – our last glimpse of you.
The surprise and happy look on your face then was so comforting despite our rushing to go home to pack our things for a trip the next day. A trip that you called “for the poor” upon knowing we will be boarding the C130 cargo plane of the Philippine Air Force to Manila.
As we continue to kill time chatting, you called us again “pobre!” after knowing we didn’t push through with our original trip to Palawan (Wakang and I went to Manila, Baguio, Sagada, Bataan and Corregidor).
Of course our trip was nothing compared to your trips – on coverage or simply for leisure.
I recalled our first coverage together, which was purely accidental. The main purpose of joining you and Carol Arguillas (our bureau chief) in 1999 to cover the two missing climbers in Mt. Apo was for me to escape from the routinary “office mainstay” duties.
I can still remember how you smirked and patiently waited for me to answer Carol when she asked if I wanted to cover it and reminded me that it was my call.
You won people’s heart not through gentleness and kindness. You did it through intimidation.
I felt so rookie being with you in news coverage. You were full of life, your words full of sarcasm but peppered with truth.
You were a frequent flyer of the Air Force’s Huey helicopters just like Tatay Rene, your father. The 1999 coverage was my first and I was seated on the chair next to the pilots’ while you boarded the other chopper which was ferrying government and military officials. I couldn’t help myself but continually look at you, before both Hueys took off, just trying to get your attention and teach me how to buckle up. I ended covering my seatbelt with my jacket instead.
As we landed in Amas, North Cotabato for a short stopover before heading back to Davao, I went to your side and told you I didn’t buckle up during the entire flight. You laughed. You laughed Boyd and never stopped teasing me about it. You even announced it to other journalists.
PDI bureau chief Nico Alconaba was also your victim. On your way to Surigao on board a hired pick-up, the driver fell asleep and all of you ended on a ricefield.
Awaken by the incident, you said “murag wala na daw ta sa highway, humayan na siguro ni.”
Incidents of teasing, sarcasm and even intimidation complete your character.
Someday, others will be able to let you go and face the reality that you already joined the Chief Photographer up there.
He will be very glad to see you in His huge classroom, making you his very special student and perhaps be able to give you additional inputs in “Covering My children in Jolo 101.”
Filipino photojournalists raise their cameras during a sunset ceremony in your memory Boyd, even the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) regret your early demise, you as their alumni. You were the first Filipino participant in the Asia-Europe Forum for Young Photographers in 2003 in Amsterdam, Netherlands in December of the same year, a partnership with the World Press Photo Foundation.
Even UNESCO Director-General Koichoro Matsura condemned your death.
It’s been three years since your assailant pulled the trigger in Jolo on November 12, 2004.
It is difficult to accept the fate that befell you so here we are, gathered today to share pieces of our memories of you. To many of us, you were not just a partner in coverage. You were a dear friend and touched the lives of journalists across the country.
It was your time Boyd, we gently let you go as you enjoy His
paradise, a place where there is no hurry to submit photos and where you can enjoy watching your favorite cartoons and play games online. No deadlines.
A year after the incident, murder charges were filed against two suspects. The police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said charges were filed in the office of the Sulu Provincial Prosecutor.
The head of the Task Force Lumawag then identified the suspects as Itting and Omar Sailani, both they said are members of the Abu Sayyaf group and wanted for kidnapping in Basilan in 2001. At that time they remained at large.
Two months later, then Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said Itting Sailani was wounded in an encounter with members of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 9 (MBLT9) in Bus-bus, Jolo but escaped.
In June 20, 2007, the military said your perpetrators were slain by intelligence operatives while bathing at a river in Barangay Baiwas, Sumisip, Basilan. They still insisted it was the Sailani brothers who killed you.
I remember you.
Joy and I were on our way home when my cellphone rang four years ago. It was Dennis Sabangan, European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) Philippines chief, on the other line. Dennis usually calls when news breaks out or if he needs to verify information. He broke the news of your death while Joy and I were onboard a public utility vehicle nearing Bankerohan Bridge.
Dennis said over and over again, you wanted to be the Robert Capa of the Philippines.
Two or three weeks before you were killed, we had an online chat, the longest we had since you included me in your friends’ list. You were your usual obnoxious but lovable self – a character which we find endearing and frustrating at the same time.
I called you Boyd. You called me Yosel.
An early achiever in your age, you traveled to the outskirts of Mindanao, far down South and around the globe. Your latest conquest was a European football-crazed country, including Netherlands and Germany where you spent your first snowy Christmas.
Before we had that chat, Atty. Wakang and I met you at the old MindaNews office in General Luna Street on October 8 – our last glimpse of you.
The surprise and happy look on your face then was so comforting despite our rushing to go home to pack our things for a trip the next day. A trip that you called “for the poor” upon knowing we will be boarding the C130 cargo plane of the Philippine Air Force to Manila.
As we continue to kill time chatting, you called us again “pobre!” after knowing we didn’t push through with our original trip to Palawan (Wakang and I went to Manila, Baguio, Sagada, Bataan and Corregidor).
Of course our trip was nothing compared to your trips – on coverage or simply for leisure.
I recalled our first coverage together, which was purely accidental. The main purpose of joining you and Carol Arguillas (our bureau chief) in 1999 to cover the two missing climbers in Mt. Apo was for me to escape from the routinary “office mainstay” duties.
I can still remember how you smirked and patiently waited for me to answer Carol when she asked if I wanted to cover it and reminded me that it was my call.
You won people’s heart not through gentleness and kindness. You did it through intimidation.
I felt so rookie being with you in news coverage. You were full of life, your words full of sarcasm but peppered with truth.
You were a frequent flyer of the Air Force’s Huey helicopters just like Tatay Rene, your father. The 1999 coverage was my first and I was seated on the chair next to the pilots’ while you boarded the other chopper which was ferrying government and military officials. I couldn’t help myself but continually look at you, before both Hueys took off, just trying to get your attention and teach me how to buckle up. I ended covering my seatbelt with my jacket instead.
As we landed in Amas, North Cotabato for a short stopover before heading back to Davao, I went to your side and told you I didn’t buckle up during the entire flight. You laughed. You laughed Boyd and never stopped teasing me about it. You even announced it to other journalists.
PDI bureau chief Nico Alconaba was also your victim. On your way to Surigao on board a hired pick-up, the driver fell asleep and all of you ended on a ricefield.
Awaken by the incident, you said “murag wala na daw ta sa highway, humayan na siguro ni.”
Incidents of teasing, sarcasm and even intimidation complete your character.
Someday, others will be able to let you go and face the reality that you already joined the Chief Photographer up there.
He will be very glad to see you in His huge classroom, making you his very special student and perhaps be able to give you additional inputs in “Covering My children in Jolo 101.”
Filipino photojournalists raise their cameras during a sunset ceremony in your memory Boyd, even the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) regret your early demise, you as their alumni. You were the first Filipino participant in the Asia-Europe Forum for Young Photographers in 2003 in Amsterdam, Netherlands in December of the same year, a partnership with the World Press Photo Foundation.
Even UNESCO Director-General Koichoro Matsura condemned your death.
