Gerry Ortega

In August 2017, the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan convicted Joel Reyes with one count of graft and sentenced him to 6 to 8 years in prison over an illegal small-scale mining permit in Puerto Princesa in 2006. However, in early January 2018, the Court of Appeals freed Reyes from jail. The court ruling said that the Palawan Regional Trial Court (RTC) had no basis to hold him for trial over the murder of broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega and deemed him a free man. No other explanation was made, despite the conviction of Reyes in a different case in August 2017. In January 29, 2018, the Sandiganbayan ordered the arrest of murderer Joel Reyes in connection with his conviction for the anomalous renewal of small-scale mining permits. Reyes is also facing separate charges at the Sandiganbayan over the Malampaya and fertilizer fund scams.

In late January 2016 the Supreme Court rendered a decision regarding whether the Reyes could be prosecuted for the murder. The high court determined that "The trial court has already determined, independently of any finding or recommendation by the First Panel or Second Panel, that probable cause exists for the issuance of the warrant of arrest against respondent. Probable cause has been judicially determined. Jurisdiction over the case, therefore, has transferred to the trial court".

In early March 2016, a former top aide of Governor Reyes, Arturo "Nonoy" Regalado, was found guilty. He was sentenced to reclusión perpetua. His role in the murder included the purchase of the gun.

On March 21, 2016, at the Reyeses trial, bodyguard Rodolfo Edrad Jr alyas Bumar, admitted he hired the killers, and identified the brothers as the masterminds. He testified that his employer, the then governor and his brother, paid him P500,000.

In August 2015, the Ortega family renewed their call for their petition to the first panel be made. According to a petition drive on Change.org we "decry the de facto inaction and seeming apathy of authorities in resolving the Ortega case and all media killings in the country".

As of September 2015 the Supreme Court has not ruled on the appeal made by the DOJ to validate the second panel. Meanwhile, the family of Ortega has pressed the DOJ for a review by the first panel. However, de Lima said she could not act on the family’s petition because this may affect the DOJ appeal in the Supreme Court.

In early September 2015 a tip by email informed officials the pair was residing in a villa in a resort town on Phuket Island, Thailand. The Thai government was asked to investigate and the brothers were arrested for over staying their visas. They were deportation back to the Philippines to face charges and arrived September 25, 2015.

On September 28, 2015 the DOJ announced a team of lawyers was investigating the implications of reviewing and/or reversing the findings by the first panel that was in favor of not prosecuting the Reyes brothers. A decision was expected in two weeks.

On October 2, 2015 the Reyes brothers refused to make a plea for the killing of Ortega and the judge entered a plea not guilty on their behalf. The case pre-trial conference, and bail request hearing were set for December 3, 2015.

On September 30, 2015, the Office of the Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay called upon the DOJ to investigate former Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado for his possible involvement in hiding the Reyes brothers. According to VP Binay, police confirmed Mercado had been receiving calls and messages from the Reyes brothers. Mercado meanwhile had been providing testimony against Binay's son, former Mayor of Makati City Jejomar Erwin “Junjun”. Junjun Binay had been accused of corruption and bribing one of the same judges in the Court of Appeals that issued adverse rulings in the Ortega cases.

Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes IV publicly named and claimed two judges on the Court of Appeals were paid off by the Binay family. In April 2015, Trillanes said “One of these days, we will expose them: who had fronted for them, who they had talked to, how much they paid. Eventually, we will bring that all out.” Initially, he did not name who the front man was for the Binay family. However, later he named a local law firm which employed the daughter of the justice that ruled on Ortega case. One of her specialty areas is mining.

In mid-October 2015 the brothers declared themselves as candidates for office in the 2016 elections. Joel will run for mayor and Mario as vice mayor of Coron town.

In October 2014, a third ruling by the CA affirmed the ability of DOJ Justice Secretary Leila de Lima "to review, revise, reverse, or modify the resolutions of her prosecutors who conducted preliminary investigations." This confirmed the ability of the DOJ to comply with the family wishes that the first panel review its decision. Additionally, the CA rejected a motion by the Reyes brothers to "inhibit" de Lima from the case owing to comments made to the press that they believed demonstrated a bias against them.

In December 2014, police came close to catching the pair when tracing calls. A source from Thailand was identified. Interpol and Thai police evidently spooked the pair when doing surveillance. The brothers moved out before agents moved in.

On March 13, 2012, the Department of Justice, after a review by a second panel, reversed its former decision of dismissing the cases against Governor Joel Reyes, Mayor Mario Reyes, Romeo Seratubias, Arturo Regalado, and Percival Lecias and ordered the filing of murder charges against them on the death of Ortega after the reviewing the motion for reconsideration filed by Ortega's wife the previous year and taking into account the new evidences presented there. Only former Governor Jose Carreon was not included in the charges due to insufficiency of evidence. Murder charges were filed on March 17, some of those named were picked up for trial, however the Reyes disappeared.

Attorneys for the accused filed an appeal that the Second Panel was not legal and the First Panel cleared their client. In November 2012, the Circuit Court of Appeals (CA) agreed. The second panel of prosecutors should not have been formed without first without reversing the findings of the original panel. Alternately, new evidence, or any review should have been directed to the First Panel that had voted to not prosecute. The Department of Justice asked the CA to reverse their ruling. Instead, in September 2013, the CA affirmed their first ruling. They cited the "finding by the first panel of prosecutors has not yet been reversed, affirmed or modified". Therefore, it still stood.

In August 2012, reward money for information about the whereabouts of the Reyes helped spring information. In a dramatic media forum held at Club Filipino, a man appeared with a cloth hiding his face before reporters. The unidentified man was presented by former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez and Sandra Cam of the Whistleblowers Association of the Philippine. He claimed he drove the Reyes to the airport and that Bureau of Immigration officials assisted with their flight to Vietnam. He also claimed he drove their attorney, Hermie Aban, to the airport who was the friend of the immigration officials.

They appear to have fled on March 18, 2012 using a passport under the name Joseph Lim Pe. Immigration records showed that a certain Lim Pe and a companion left for Vietnam via a Cebu Pacific flight.

Two officials were placed under suspension in 2012. In late September 2015, Wesley Gutierrez, a guard and Rogelio Delgado Udarbe, an administrative assistant, were found guilty of administrative charges of gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and formally dismissed.

In an interview with Philippine Star journalist Faizza Farinna Tanggol on January 22, 2011, Ortega explained the way these projects were structured:

In January 2011, Ortega, together with Bantay Kalikasan decided to launch a broad campaign against mining in Palawan, in response to the approval of large scale mining by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development(PCSD) the month before.

At around 10:30 in the morning of January 24, 2011, Ortega had just finished broadcasting on his morning show "Ramatak" for Radyo Mo Nationwide (RMN)'s Palawan station dwAR-FM, and was supposed to prepare for a scheduled journey to Manila to promote the Ten Million Signatures campaign. He stopped at an "Ukay Ukay" (used clothing) Thrift store in Barangay San Pedro, near the veterinary clinic he shared with his wife Patty.

Recamata originally claimed that the motivation for the killing was simply robbery, but numerous parties including the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Asian Human Rights Commission, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn, and ABS CBN's Bantay Kalikasan, through its head Gina Lopez, pointed out that this was unlikely, given the way the murder was conducted, the fact that Ortega did not present himself as someone likely to be worth robbing. Recamata also implicated three others in his statements: Rodolfo O. Edrad Jr., Dennis C. Aranas, and Armando R. Noel. Recamata pleaded guilty to murder charges on Feb. 11, 2011. The case was heard at the Puerto Princesa trial court. He received a sentence of life in prison.

A second suspect, Percival Lecias, was invited for questioning by the Puerto Princesa office of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) the day after, on January 25, 2011.

Dennis Aranas was arrested in Coron, Palawan three days after the assassination, on Jan. 28, 2011. He also confessed to the crime at the Puerto Princesa Police Office.

Rodolfo Edrad Jr. surrendered to Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn in Lucena, Quezon on Feb. 5, 2011, and Hagedorn brought him to the National Bureau of Investigation NBI headquarters in Manila. Armando Noel surrendered to the NBI at their Taft Avenue headquarters on Feb. 10, 2011. Both Edrad and Noel Confessed to the crime before the NBI.

Another suspect, Edwin Arandia gave himself up on Feb. 27, 2011, to Fr. Robert Reyes who accompanied him to the NBI.

Before criminal charges can be filed, prosecutors must determine if there is reasonable evidence against the accused. In a resolution dated June 8, 2011 a panel of prosecutors from the Philippines' Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed criminal charges filed against former Marinduque Governor Jose Antonio N. Carrion, former Palawan Gov. Mario Joel T. Reyes, former Palawan Mayor Mario T. Reyes, former provincial administrator Atty Romeo Serratubias, Arturo Regalado, and Percival B. Lecias, citing "insufficiency of evidence".

On July 1, 2011, Patty Ortega filed a 47-page motion for reconsideration at the Department of Justice, asking the investigating panel to recommend that charges be filed against Reyes and the five others who had been absolved by the panel, arguing that those she alleged to be the "masterminds and principals" behind the killing ought to be charged, not just the ones who were charged, whom she referred to as "pawns whose participation in the murder were merely at best as accessories."

By late 2009, Ortega had begun regularly receiving death threats because of the hard-hitting nature of his radio programs, at one point prompting the family to get a bodyguard for him. Puerto Princesa City Former Mayor Edward Hagedorn revealed that Ortega was especially concerned when at one point the threats extended to his daughters.

At this time, Ortega also began serving as an anchor/commentator in a number of radio stations in Palawan, allowing him to promote his environmental advocacy and continue his anti-corruption campaign. Join in TV Patrol Palawan in 2006-2010

In 2004, Ortega ran for Governor of Palawan, under a good governance platform. He lost. Governor Mario Joel T. Reyes was declared the winner.

Ortega resigned from his post at Crocodile Farm in time to run for a position in the Provincial Board of Palawan during the elections of 2001. He won and held that post until 2004.

In 1993 the CFI came up with the idea of farming out their crocodiles. The idea sparked considerable interest, and over 80 potential crocodile farmers applied. Nineteen of these were in attendance on February 1 to 3, 1999, when Ortega hosted the “Orientation on the Establishment of Crocodile Farms in the Philippines.” After screening applicants, the CFI gave 6 crocodile farmers their first crocodiles in early 2000. Ortega's initiative thus represented the birth of the crocodile industry in the Philippines.

In 1988 Ortega began working at the Crocodile Farming Institute (since renamed the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center but still known widely and referred to below as the Crocodile Farm or CFI) in Irawan, Puerto Princesa, Palawan. In 1989, he became the institute's director.

Gerardo Valeriano Ortega DVM (August 28, 1963 – January 24, 2011), better known simply as "Doc Gerry" or "Ka Gerry", was a Filipino journalist, veterinarian, politician, environmental activist, and community organizer best known for his work to promote crocodile farming in the Philippines, and for his advocacy against mining on the island of Palawan. Ortega has often been lauded as a hero of the Philippine Environment since he was assassinated on January 24, 2011, allegedly due to his anti-mining advocacy.

Doc Gerry was born on August 28, 1963, the son of Rafael “Totoy" Ortega, who was the Municipal Mayor of Aborlan, in the island province of Palawan. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation near Manila. In 1988 he married Patria Gloria "Patty" Innocencio in a church wedding in Bulacan. They later had five children. The eldest, Mika Ortega, worked as an Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) Officer of ABS-CBN Foundation's Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig.