Ex-PDI reporter spoke of threat to her life 2 years ago, says friend

MANILA, Philippines – Slain journalist Melinda “Mei” Magsino spoke of a threat to her life two years ago.

On May 6, 2013, Magsino wrote a friend in Facebook that Batangas City Mayor Eduardo “Eddie” Dimacuha had put out a P200,000 bounty on her head.

A day after Magsino was gunned down outside her house in Batangas City on Monday, the friend volunteered the information to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on condition of anonymity to ensure her safety.

“I need your help. Hi. May order na nga daw sina Eddie Dimacuha at brother nyang si Palos to kill Nomer Macalalad and me. Ang patong sa ulo ko eh P200K at P500K kay Nomer,” Magsino wrote in a Facebook private message to her friend.

The incumbent mayor’s brother, Ruben Dimacuha, is reportedly known locally as “Palos.”

Macalalad was the Batangas provincial information officer during the term of former governor and now Batangas (second district) Representative Hermilando Mandanas.

Magsino did not elaborate and her friend did not reply to her message.

The former Inquirer correspondent did not mention the threat again in their subsequent exchanges in Facebook; the next one came in August 2013.

Their last exchange in Facebook was a brief one in September 2014.

Her friend said Magsino was as outspoken against public officials as about her personal life.

But that was the only death threat Magsino mentioned since they began to correspond in Facebook in 2012, according to the friend.

In February 2012, she confided her concern about an affair with someone whom she perceived to have turned out to be a stalker.

In October 2012, she shared the news that then Batangas City vice mayor Jose “Joe” Tolentino would file a plunder complaint against then mayor Vilma Dimacuha, wife of the incumbent mayor, for reduced real property taxes on a power plant.

The Ombudsman last year dismissed the complaint, which was filed by a Batangas City resident.

“For sure she was killed by one of her enemies,” her friend said.

Magsino was shot dead on the street outside her house in Batangas City around noon Monday, April 13.

The gunman shot her point-blank in the head before he escaped with the driver of a waiting motorcycle. SFM