Philippines: Freelance journalist, Miguelito ‘Mike’ Rueras, killed in Masbate
A freelance journalist for Cebu City-based radio station dyDD El Nuevo Bantay Radyo 1280 kHZ was shot and killed while working at a store he owned in Masbate province Sunday.
Miguelito “Mike” Rueras was killed by an unknown gunman who entered his store at the public market of Pio V. Corpus town, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines today.
Police say that Rueras was shot twice in the chest with a 45-caliber pistol. The killer then fled on a black motorcycle toward a nearby village and still at large.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the killing. The motive of the attack is still unknown; however, his work as a reporter and his involvement in local politics are being examined.
During the May 2013 elections, Rueras reportedly stopped reporting to dyDD and had worked for the campaign of re-elected Masbate Gov. Rizalina Lanete.
The murder of Rueras is the third killing of a journalist in Masbate since 2003.
The other two Masbate journalists – Nelson Nadura was murdered on December 2, 2003 and Antonio Castillo who was also killed on June 12, 2009 and both cases remain unsolved to this day.
“We…strongly urge the Philippine National Police to bring justice to the families of our slain colleagues by sending the perpetrator and others involved to jail and suffer the punitive consequence of the crime committed,”a spokesperson for the Masbate chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said.
Attacks on journalists in the Philippines are not uncommon and the country remains one of the world’s most dangerous for media workers.
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