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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 10) – A Pangasinan-based radio commentator and columnist was shot dead by motorcycle assailants on Tuesday, four years after surviving a similar attempt on his life.
Virgilio Maganes, a commentator for the radio station dwPR, was shot several times while walking near his home in Sitio Licsab, Barangay San Blas, city of Villasis around 6:45 am, the Presidential Working Group on Media Safety said.
“He was pronounced dead on the spot,” he added in a statement. Police recovered six empty .45 caliber pistol cartridges from the crime scene, but the gunmen have not yet been identified.
Maganes just turned 62 on November 7.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, of which Maganes was a member, noted that armed men on a motorcycle also wounded him on November 8, 2016. Maganes pretended to be dead when his attackers left a cardboard near him, with the words: “Drug dealer huwag pamarisan (Don’t emulate this drug dealer),” NUJP said.
A attempted murder charge was filed in court against one of the suspects, but this was later dismissed after Maganes signed an Affidavit of Withdrawal to say he was no longer pursuing the complaint, the government task force noted.
NUJP said Maganes was the 18th journalist killed under the Duterte administration, and the 190th since 1986.
Malacañang condemned the murder of Maganes and agreed with his family. The presidential task force said it is coordinating with the police, as well as Maganes’ family and friends, to ensure justice is served.
The Philippines is now the seventh worst country in the world when it comes to prosecuting murderers of journalists, according to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists. This is a slight improvement over the country’s fifth place in 2019.
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