DEATH OF A JOURNALIST The body of Melinda “Mei” Magsino, a former Inquirer correspondent who had reported on corruption and “jueteng” (an illegal numbers game) in Batangas province, is covered with a piece of cardboard after she was gunned down at high noon on a street in Barangay Balagtas in Batangas City on Monday. She was the 32nd journalist killed under the Aquino administration. INSET PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK ACOUNT OF MAGSINO/REJECT RPT20 MOVEMENT-BATANGAS CITY FACEBOOK PAGE
BATANGAS CITY—A single gunshot ended the life of Melinda “Mei” Magsino in Batangas, the province she covered as correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for six years until 2005.
Magsino, 40, was killed at high noon as she was walking on a street in Barangay (village) Balagtas here, just about 50 meters from her apartment.
Magsino went out before noon on Monday to buy an electric fan, according to her relatives.
A security camera from a nearby auto shop showed a male gunman, wearing a white “sando” (sleeveless shirt), approach the victim from the back. The gunman shot her at close range, with the bullet exiting through the victim’s left eye.
The gunman escaped on a black and white Honda motorcycle driven by another man, the police investigation said.
“Things like this happen to people doing what is right. We will find out who did this,” said her father, Danilo Magsino, a retired Army colonel.
Magsino was the 32nd journalist killed in the country under the Aquino administration and the 173rd journalist murdered since 1986.
READ: PH third deadliest country for journalists after Iraq and Syria
“The list of murdered journalists here [in the Philippines] is too long. I have to survive. I don’t want to become another statistic,” Magsino wrote in 2005, after receiving death threats.
Senior Supt. Jireh Omega Fidel, Batangas police director, said Magsino was dead on the spot from a gunshot wound to the head at 12:10 p.m.
Police recovered an empty shell from a .45 cal. from the crime scene.
Vegetarian
Fidel said Magsino, a vegetarian, was managing a health clinic in the city at the time of her death. Her boyfriend was helping her manage the clinic that was also selling herbal products.
The Philippine National Police said the Batangas provincial police office had been ordered to get to the bottom of Magsino’s murder.
“The PNP, through the Batangas police, will of course investigate this case, identify the culprit and charge him in court,” said the PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr.
Cerbo said Task Force Usig would also conduct an investigation of Magsino’s murder, with a special investigation task group to be formed to solve the case.
The Batangas City police chief, Supt. Manuel Castillo, said Magsino had just left a house in Purok 2, which she was sharing with her boyfriend, before she was shot. The suspects had been tailing her.
Hard-hitting journalist
Magsino was known among Batangas reporters as a hard-hitting journalist.
Records from the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) showed that Magsino reported “threats” to her life sometime in 2005, during which she exposed alleged corruption and illegal gambling activities of the late Batangas Gov. Armand Sanchez. Some of her stories named the former governor a “jueteng lord.”
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), in a report that year, said the Batangas provincial government declared Magsino persona non grata after she and Sanchez had a confrontation during a press conference.
CMFR said Magsino was asking favors from Sanchez but the official turned her down.
Sanchez suffered a stroke and died in April 2010.
Danilo said he understood the nature of his daughter’s job. “In a profession like yours, it’s hard not to draw some people’s ire,” he told the Inquirer at the Filipinas Funeral Home here, where Magsino’s body was brought.
Danilo, however, refused to give the names of those whom his daughter might have “angered.”
Not afraid of enemies
“She had many enemies, but she was not afraid. She was never afraid,” said Magsino’s cousin, Christine Magsino.
She said even after Magsino had stopped writing for print media, her cousin had continued to practice as a journalist through social media.
In 2010, an election year, Magsino ran the Southern Luzon Inquirer, a bilingual provincial newspaper in Batangas that was not related to the Inquirer.
She served as the paper’s publisher, editor in chief and reporter. It published weekly issues from January to August 2010.
“Nothing happened to the business so we decided to fold up,” said Magsino’s colleague, who refused to be named due to the sensitivity of the case.
Social media accounts
After that, Magsino surfaced through Facebook by creating public accounts called the “Barako Batangas” and “Taga Bauan Ka Kung…” Here, Magsino made public her tirades against certain Batangas government officials.
Magsino hailed from Bauan, Batangas.
Hours before she was gunned down, Magsino posted a tirade, supposedly meant for Bauan Mayor Ryan Dolor.
In a phone interview, Dolor admitted he and his family were not in good terms with Magsino but denied he had anything to do with her killing.
“She had been attacking us even during my father’s term as mayor. Ask around and you’d know what kind of reporting she practiced,” Dolor said.
Incidentally, it was the birthday of Dolor’s father, former Bauan Mayor and Batangas board member Herminigildo Dolor on Monday.
The Batangas City police chief described Magsino as having “many enemies” based on her social media account where she was “hitting several politicians below the belt.”
The observation was shared by Magsino’s friend and former classmate, who requested not to be identified. The friend said Magsino had seemed to have gathered many enemies because of the criticisms and tirades she had posted on her former local newspaper and on her Facebook account.
Bauan councilor
Last Sunday, Magsino posted on her Facebook account that she was receiving obscene messages and photos in the past two days.
“When I had the IP address traced, this is what we got. Konsehal ng bayan ng Bauan, Batangas pala ang gumagawa, (A councilor of Bauan, Batangas was the culprit),” said Magsino.
She posted Facebook links with IP addresses of Kelvin Gimeno, Panganiban Jeff and Paradise Andrew.
Police said they were exploring all possible angles related to Magsino’s killing, including reviewing her social media activities.
Seeking NBI’s help
The family, however, refused to surrender Magsino’s personal effects, such as her cell phone, to the local police, and sought instead an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation. The family did not disclose the reason for doing so.
“Even if they’re uncooperative, we’d still do our job because it took place in our jurisdiction,” Castillo said.
NUJP Batangas chapter chair Arnel Ozaeta said that while Magsino no longer practiced journalism as a profession, the organization still condemned her killing.
Long list
Before Magsino was shot dead, a Filipino journalist was killed in February.
On Feb. 14, radioman Maurito Lim was shot dead in front of the dyRD radio station in Tagbilaran City, Bohol province, by a lone assailant.
Lim was the 31st journalist killed under the Aquino administration, according to NUJP.
Since 1986, 173 journalists have been killed in the country. This count includes the 32 media workers who were killed in election violence in Maguindanao province in 2009. The 32 media workers were among the 58 people killed in an ambush on Nov. 23, 2009, the worst election violence in Philippine history.
The Ampatuans, a political clan, were tagged the masterminds of the massacre.
Perpetrators unpunished
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Philippines is among the top three countries where the murder of journalists is most likely to go unpunished, ranking third after Iraq and Somalia.
In the latest Global Impunity Index released last year in May, CPJ said: “Fresh violence and a failure to prosecute old cases kept Iraq, Somalia and the Philippines in the three worst slots on the index.”
Last year, three Filipino journalists were killed—Sammy Oliverio, Richard Nadjid and Rubylita Garcia.
Oliverio, who hosted several programs on local radio stations in Digos City, Davao del Sur province, was shot twice in the head and nape by two men riding on a motorbike on May 23, 2014,
Broadcaster Nadjid of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi province, was killed on May 4, 2014.
Aside from being a spinner at the dxNN Power Myx FM in Tawi-Tawi, Nadjid also handled the station’s daily public affairs program.
Garcia, a correspondent of the tabloid Remate, died five hours after two gunmen shot her in front of her 10-year-old granddaughter in her house in Bacoor City on April 6, 2014.–With reports from Julie M. Aurelio and Inquirer Research
Originally posted: 2:24 PM | Monday, April 13th, 2015