The body of the radio anchor whose killing last week sparked outrage here and other parts of Negros Oriental was laid to rest Wednesday afternoon.
Thousands of relatives, friends, fans, and supporters of the late Edmund Sestoso packed the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral during the funeral mass before his body was brought to the town of San Jose where he was buried.
Fr. Mart Salac, who celebrated the requiem mass with Msgr. Merlin Logronio as a con-celebrant, called for justice for the killing of Sestoso, noting in his homily in the Cebuano dialect that “nobody has the right to take a life.”
He also read a portion of the statement of the Diocese of Dumaguete condemning the death of Sestoso.
Gov. Roel Degamo and his wife Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo were present during the mass, and shed tears during the final viewing of the deceased broadcaster.
Sestoso’s death, considered to be the first media killing in this City of Gentle People, also caught the attention of President Duterte who ordered a full-blown investigation into the murder.
He shunned other previous police pronouncements of a personal motive, or the late Sestoso’s “affiliation” with the communist group.
Sestoso was an anchor of the regular morning program Tug-anan sa Power 91 in radio DYGB-FM, and would have marked his one year with the radio station on May 1st, the day he died after he was shot in his boarding house the previous day. He was 51. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
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