“COME out, come out wherever you are.”

Following the Court of Appeals (CA) decision that invalidated the second panel created by the Justice department to probe the killing of Dr. Gerry Ortega, a broadcaster and an

environmentalist in Palawan province, the victim’s widow on Thursday dared the alleged masterminds in the killing to “come out and surrender to the court.”

Patricia Gloria Ortega challenged former governor Joel Reyes of Palawan and his brother, former mayor Mario Reyes of Coron, to come out and face the murder charges filed against them in court.

“Prove that you have nothing to do with my husband’s murder. Your continued disappearance is only a sign of admission of guilt,” Ortega said in a press conference in Makati City.

 “The initial stories/headlines give the impression that the fugitive Reyes brothers have been exonerated or been declared not guilty. We were initially led to believe that the warrant of arrest has been quashed and that the brothers will surface soon,” she added.

Malacañang said that the warrants issued against the Reyes brothers still stands because the ruling of the appellate court that voided the creation of a second panel, which found probable cause to file charges against the siblings is not yet final.

Meanwhile, Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa City, who accompanied Mrs. Ortega in the press conference, warned that more journalists would die if the Reyes brothers were acquitted.

“Malungkot ito ‘pag ganitong klase ang justice system natin, marami pang journalist ang mamamatay [It’s sad if this is our justice system, more journalists will die],”he said.

He said that of all the litigations on media killings, the murder case against the Reyes brothers is the strongest.

“This is the only case where the gun-owner, gun-buyer, gun-provider and the gunman himself have all been collared along with the organizer of the crime,” Hagedorn stressed.

Alex Avidaso, counsel for the Ortega family, said that the appellate court never recalled the arrest warrants against the Reyeses.

“What the CA has decided is the issue of technicality and the warrants of arrest versus the Reyes brothers are still in place,” he explained.