Jun Pala remembered in anger

RADIO broadcaster Juan Porras Pala’s name is back in the limelight as SPO3 Arturo Lascañas claimed it was President Rodrigo R. Duterte who paid to have the broadcaster killed. But Dabawenyos who remember the radioman also remembers how he taunted the dead and threatened to kill many on his radio program when he was still alive.

“EJKs, salvagings, however, you would call these dastardly acts could not be justified — there is just no way to do it. But,

But, frankly, when radio frequencies all over Davao first reported his death, I felt like Davao became a tad safer. To say that I was happy that morning would be a big understatement,” wrote former Kilusang Mayo Uno Vice President for Southern Mindanao now union organizer in the United States, Omar Bantayan on his Facebook.

That Lascunas identifying Pala as a journalist ordered killed by Duterte, brings back memories of how Pala taunted the assassination of Bantayan’s father as the labor leader before him, even hinting that he knew something bad will befall “Ka Oca”, who was then with the Kilusang Mayo Uno and the National Federation of Labor, when Bantayan was still 10 years old.

“I don’t care who killed him! I am just glad that in one way or another, the universe rendered us some form of justice,” Bantayan wrote.

“As a kid, the mere mention of his name would send shivers down my spine. He was a symbol of how dangerous the times we have lived then. I was ten years old when my father died a violent death. Jun Pala brazenly hinted that he was “in the know” and was an active participant in the murder of my father, Ka Oca, who was then a labor leader of Kilusang Mayo Uno and the National Federation of Labor,” he continued.

“A couple of hours before my father was ambushed on October 10, 1988, Pala played my father’s favorite song over the radio. Pala then bragged that it was his way of saying goodbye and threw notions into the air that he knew something bad will happen before it happened,” he added.

Pala did not stop at that as he continued to threaten workers, unions and progressive organizations during the wake of Bantayan’s father saying that the Ex-Cathedra Venganza, a cult-like group that Pala leads, and Alsa Masa, an anti-communist group that Pala claimed to lead, will do something violent at the funeral parlor.

The rest of Bantayan’s recollection of who Pala was reads:

“Culturally, Filipinos would avoid saying anything to malign someone who just died. But Pala, vile to the bones, went on full blast, attacked my father’s person and justified my father’s death. My uncle, Jing Bantayan, whose voice resembled that of my father, called Pala on the phone and pretended that he was Oca to scare Pala off, a ploy which worked for a couple of days.