Radio correspondent shot dead in Masbate

NAGA CITY, Philippines— A broadcaster was gunned down by a still unidentified man in a public market in Pio V. Corpus town, Masbate Sunday morning, the police said.

Miguelito Rueras, 49, a field correspondent of El Nuevo Bantay Radyo Cebu City (dyDD), was slain at around 7:50 a.m. inside his store at the market in Barangay Poblacion, said provincial police director Supt. Heriberto Olitoquit by phone on Monday.

The assailant shot the victim then fled on a black motorcycle toward a hilly portion of adjacent Barangay Labigan, also in Pio V. Corpuz, said an earlier report released by Maj. Angelo Guzman, spokesman of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division based in Pili, Camarines Sur.

Guzman, quoting a postmortem examination by Dr. Herasma Valengasa, said Rueras was shot once in the chest, causing instantaneous death.

Investigators recovered two spent cartridges and an empty slug from a .45 cal. pistol at the crime scene.

Nothing appears to have been taken from the store, which could rule out robbery as a motive, said a police investigator who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the investigation.

Olitoquit said they were still determining the identity of the gunman and motive in the killing.