Two lawmakers have offered a P200,000 reward for information leading to the identity and arrest of killers of former Inquirer correspondent Melinda “Mei” Magsino.
“We hope that this reward system will help draw reliable witnesses. We assure that we are exhausting all possible avenues and are doing our best,” said Senior Supt. Omega Fidel, police director of Batangas province.
Sen. Ralph Recto and Rep. Mark Mendoza of Batangas’ fourth district put up similar amounts of P100,000 reward for leads to the killers of Magsino, 40, who was shot on a busy street near her home in Batangas City on Monday noon.
The Batangas provincial police created a special unit called Task Force Magsino to investigate the murder. Supt. Dennis Esguerra, deputy provincial police director, will lead the unit.
A similar probe is being undertaken by the Philippine National Police Task Force Usig.
PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. said investigators had talked to Magsino’s current partner Benjie Reyes, her husband Arnold Lubis, colleagues and even politicians she had criticized in the past.
“They have no concrete update as of the moment but they said they are looking into all angles, if it is job related or related to her past work as a journalist, related to her business or a love triangle,” Cerbo said.
Supt. Manuel Castillo, Batangas City police chief, said Lubis “allegedly in December 2014, (Lubis) threatened to harm (Magsino) if she would not come back to him.” On Wednesday, Lubis came forward to police investigators and denied any knowledge in her death.
Magsino and Lubis have been separated for years. In a statement issued to the police, Lubis said the last time he contacted his wife was in 2011.
Magsino then moved to live with Reyes, a chiropractor, in Barangay (village) Balagtas, Batangas City. Their neighbors said Reyes was running his clinic in the same two-floor apartment he shared with Magsino.
Interviewed at Magsino’s wake here, Reyes said the motive to have Magsino killed could be about money.
“It’s not love triangle. It’s economics,” he said, adding that Lubis was currently jobless. But he did not elaborate.
Recto, in an e-mailed statement, said Magsino gave “Batangueños an image of what a crusading and courageous journalist should be.”
“Though at the time of her death she was not affiliated with a media organization, this did not prevent her from making social commentaries and her words sparked the changes she wanted to see in the province she truly loved,” he added. With a report from Julie Aurelio in Manila