Suspected gunman in 2010 killing of reporter Nestor Bedolido arrested

DIGOS CITY, Philippines – One of the two suspects long sought by authorities for the July 2010 murder of journalist Nestor Bedolido here was arrested Tuesday.

Chief Insp. Francis Sonza, head of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Eastern Mindanao, identified the arrested suspect as Henry Mirafuentes.

Sonza told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone that Mirafuentes was arrested around 1:30 p.m. inside a safe house in Mintal, Davao City.

“We have put this particular person who resembled Henry Mirafuentes under surveillance for almost a month and moved in when we ascertained he was indeed one of the suspects in the Bedolido case,” Sonza said.

He said Mirafuentes was the object of a warrant issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 Executive Judge Carmelita Sarno-Davin here for murder.

Senior Supt. Joel Pernito, head of the CIDG in Eastern Mindanao, said Mirafuentes was implicated in the Bedolido murder case by his own brother, Voltaire Mirafuentes.

Voltaire, the elder of the two, had surrendered to authorities in October 2010 and admitted to be among the three killers of the journalist. He identified his companions as his brother, Henry; and Artemio Timosan Jr.

Bedolido, 50, who was a reporter for the weekly tabloid Kastigador, died from six bullet wounds outside of his karaoke bar along Rizal Ave. here.

Bedolido’s death was later tied to “exposés’” the paper had published during the 2010 elections.

Voltaire has accused then governor Douglas Cagas – the subject of the supposed exposés’ – and Matanao, Davao del Sur Mayor Butch Fernandez of ordering Bedolido’s killing.

Both Cagas and Fernandez repeatedly denied involvement in Bedolido’s death and accused their political opponents of dragging them into the case to destroy their political careers. Fernandez is a known Cagas ally.

Cagas also tried to downplay Bedolido’s death by saying he was never a journalist.

But a copy of the Digos Times, a weekly magazine that Cagas owned, showed Bedolido as among the staff, and later an editor.

Cagas and Fernandez were later cleared of the accusations against them but the Bedolido family filed an appeal at the Court of Appeals.

The appeal has yet to be decided on.

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Yes, Gov. Cagas, Bedolido was a magazine editor