Bohol radio anchor shot dead

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – A radio broadcaster was shot dead by an unidentified gunman yesterday, police said.

City police chief Senior Inspector George Vale said Maurito Lim, 71, died from a gunshot wound in the face.

Lim had just parked his Isuzu Crosswind utility vehicle and was about to enter the building of radio station dyRD “Radyo Asenso” when the lone gunman appeared and shot the victim at close range.

The gunman, according to witnesses, then walked away and left in a motorcycle parked nearby.

Police recovered a spent shell of a .45 caliber pistol at the scene.

Lim was found slumped inside his vehicle with a gunshot wound in the face. The windshield of the vehicle had a bullet hole, indicating the gunman shot the victim from up front.

Police said Lim died on the way to a nearby hospital.

Although investigators have yet to determine the motive of the attack, police said all angles are being looked into, including the possibility of revenge in relation to his work as a block time radio announcer.

He was popularly known as “Chairman Mao on Board” in his weekly noontime radio program on dyRD.

Lim, an engineer who had previously worked with the National Power Corp., was said to be critical of local officials.

He is a member of the Bohol Tri-media Association (BTMA) headed by Peter Dejaresco, whose family owns dyRD semi-weekly newspaper The Bohol Chronicle.

Lim’s murder occurred after Nerlita Ledesma, a reporter of tabloids Abante and Abante Tonite, was shot dead in Bataan last month.

The police had arrested one suspect but he was later released for lack of evidence.

Lim became the 173rd journalist slain since 1986 and the 32nd under the Aquino administration.

Ledesma was the first journalist killed this year.

Only recently, the Philippines was ranked 141st among 180 countries indexed by the Paris-based press freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) for this year. – Rolex Elmido/The Freeman, Mike Frialde, Jaime Laude