Reward up for killers, brains in slay of radioman

ILOILO CITY—A group of Iloilo journalists has offered a P500,000 reward for the arrest of those behind the killing of a radio program host in Negros Occidental last Monday.

One of two factions of the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) also condemned the killing of Niel “Lito” Jimena.

The IPC said in a statement issued on Tuesday that it was offering the reward for any information that will help solve the killing.

Jimena, host of political block-time programs in Iloilo, died from five gunshot wounds Monday after motorcycle-riding assailants repeatedly shot him in EB Magalona town in Negros Occidental.

Jimena, 42, is a native of Lapaz District in Iloilo and moved to Hacienda Teresa, Barangay Alicante in EB Magalona.

He bought air time at the defunct dyRP in Iloilo and dyAG in Cadiz City in Negros Occidental. He was set to start a program in Radio Mindanao Network-dyRI Iloilo on Tuesday, according to his friend Larry Trinidad, a reporter of dyHB-RMN Bacolod.

Trinidad said Jimena was an asset for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

SPO4 Leonardo Cobing, EB Magalona officer in charge, said it was the second attack on Jimena. The first was in September 2009.

Authorities, however, were uncertain whether the attack last Monday was related to his radio program or his past involvement in PDEA.

Jimena hosted block-time programs usually attacking politicians or perceived political rivals of his patrons.

The IPC said the killing was “clearly the handiwork of hired hit men.”

Supt. Ranulfo Demiar, chief of the regional operations and plans division of the Philippine National Police, said investigators were still determining the motive for the killing.

“He might have incurred many enemies because of his various involvements,” Demiar said in a phone interview. Nestor P. Burgos and Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas