Masbate-based radio stringer shot dead

MANILA, Philippines – A news stringer for Cebu City-based radio station dyDD El Nuevo Bantay Radyo 1280 kHZ was shot dead in Masbate province Sunday, June 1. 

Miguelito “Mike” Rueras was killed inside his own store at a public market in the town of Pio V. Corpus, according to the Masbate chapter of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP). 

This is the 3rd media-related killing in the Philippines in 2013. 

Police said Rueras died immediately of two gunshots to the chest from a .45-caliber pistol. The killer remains at large. 

According to the NUJP, Rueras stopped filing reports for the radio station to work for the campaign of re-elected Masbate Gov Rizalina Seachon-Lanete. 

NUJP condemned the incident. “Regardless of where a media worker works aside from his work as a journalist, there is no legitimate reason to attack them, much more to kill the person,” said NUJP Secretary General Rupert Mangilit. 

Rueras is also the 3rd Masbate-based journalist to be killed since 2003. The other victims were Nelson Nadura, who died on December 2, 2003, and Antonio Castillo, who died on June 12, 2009. 

None of the cases have been solved. 

At least 154 media-related killings have occurred in the Philippines since 1986, according to NUJP records. Of the number, only 10 have resulted in convictions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines 3rd in its 2013 Impunity Index due to the slow progress in the prosecution of suspects in the Maguindanao Massacre. 

In 2013 alone, NUJP has monitored 25 incidents of intimidation against journalists, with 11 incidents occurring during the election season. – Rappler.com