PUNCH throwback to May 20, 1966
(We are reprinting the news account on the murder of The PUNCH Founder-Editor published in the Saturday edition of the Manila Chronicle on May 21, 1966, to commemorate his 49th death anniversary – Editor)
EDITOR SLAIN IN COLD BLOOD
DAGUPAN CITY, May 20— Ermin Garcia, editor of the Sunday Punch, was murdered today by one of two armed men who broke into his office.
An elective official, reportedly, was involved in the killing.
Garcia suffered gunshot wounds in the chest and in the abdomen. He died at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital at 10:47 tonight following an operation.
In an ante-mortem statement, Garcia was said to have described the man who had shot him. The description of the gunman reportedly fit that of the official involved.
The shooting came after Garcia and a reporter of his paper, Rodolfo Toledo, had been warned by telephone not to publish the story exposing an alleged money order racket here.
Toledo told PNS the story was to have come out in the next issue of the provincial paper.
When Garcia and Toledo demurred, the people involved in the racket went gunning for them.
At 2 p.m. today, a taxicab bearing four men stopped in front of the Mendoza Printing Press where the Sunday Punch was being published. Its four passengers alighted and inquired from the press owner for Garcia and Toledo.
Told that the two newsmen were not there, the four men reportedly boarded the taxicab again and proceeded to the Sunday Punch office some 100 meters away.
Two of the passengers went up to the office while the other two stayed in the taxicab.
Garcia who met the two strangers told them to go home “because you are drunk.”
Three shots suddenly rang out. Garcia slumped to the floor. The assailants then rushed downstairs.
Editor’s Notes: The assailant, Rudy Soriano, then a councilor in Lingayen town, was found guilty by the court and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment. He was, however, released after 5 years when President Ferdinand Marcos granted him executive pardon reportedly on the recommendation of then former Civil Service Commissioner Jake Clave.
One of Soriano’s accomplices died under different circumstances while serving their sentence while the other was shot in a running gun battle with the police shortly after his release from prison.
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