PR man for Dominguez, Floirendo murdered

MANILA, Philippines - At least 34 bullet casings were found at a street corner in San Juan after a public relations man and his younger brother were shot by two unidentified men late Thursday.

Michael Marasigan, also a retired journalist, died at the scene while his younger brother Christopher succumbed to wounds later after the attack at the corner of V. Cruz and Barcelona streets in Barangay Sta. Lucia at about 6:10 p.m. Thursday, San Juan police chief Senior Supt. Lawrence Coop said.

The victims were in their Mazda van when one of the gunmen on a motorcycle approached and repeatedly shot Michael, who was in the passenger’s seat, at close range.

The other gunman alighted from the motorcycle ad finished off the elder Marasigan, witnesses said.

“We have in our custody a witness who claimed that the gunman or back rider of the motorcycle emptied his handgun at Mike and managed to change magazine. And while doing so, the driver took out a caliber .45 pistol and opened fire also at the direction of the elder Marasigan,” Eastern Police District director Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula said.

Police said Michael, 60, died instantly from multiple gunshot wounds while Christopher succumbed to six gunshot wounds while being treated at a hospital.

Sapitula said Christopher, who was behind the wheel, was still alive when responding lawmen arrived.

“He (Christopher) opened the driver’s seat door when he sensed the presence of policemen. The car moved forward because he was stepping on the brakes,” he said.

Sapitula pointed out the elder Marasigan was apparently the target as shown by the bullet holes on the windshield and passenger side of the vehicle.

Police investigators recovered at least 34 spent shells of 9 mm and caliber .45 pistol at the crime scene.

Michael Marasigan

Sapitula admitted they are facing a blank wall in their investigation of the death of the Marasigan brothers.

Sapitula initially ruled out robbery as the motive because the suspects immediately fled.

He said the Marasigans were not listed in the watchlist of drug personalities.

“We will look into all angles of the incident. We are backtracking our investigation from the moment they left Mike’s house up to the crime scene,” Sapitula said.

Michael was a former reporter and editor of BusinessWorld and had been hired as communications consultant of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who was shocked upon learning of his death.

Marasigan also served as editor for BusinessDay newspaper and pioneered one of the country’s first digitized newspapers, BusinessWorld Online, as its first online chief editor. He was also an independent producer for the Living Asia Channel and the creator of ourphilippines.tv.

“We will be talking to the families of the two victims and see whether they mentioned something to them, like death threats or other problems, for us to fast-track our probe of the incident,” Sapitula said.

“We will leave no stone unturned to identify and eventually arrest the killers,” he said.

Philippine National Police spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos gave assurance the San Juan police are looking for leads to identify the people involved in the attack.

“The San Juan police will ensure that the investigation will lead to the prosecution of the suspects and give justice to the death of Mr. Marasigan,” Carlos said.

Dominguez called on authorities to find and prosecute the perpetrators behind the attack.

“I am both saddened and shocked. My deepest condolences go to the family of Mike and that of his brother, Christopher,” Dominguez said.

“I hope that they will return positive results in their investigations,” he said.

Dominguez vouched for Mike, saying he had known him for over 30 years. “I and his peers held him in very high regard for his skills and thorough professionalism,” the finance chief said.

“Mike, who always had a kind word to everyone he meets, was a highly respected journalist and public relations man. As my communications consultant, he was always prompt, thorough and very good at what he did, which was to assist the DOF in relaying its key messages and programs to the public,” Dominguez said.

Among the other beats, Marasigan covered the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and their sub-agencies as a reporter.

It was at the DA that Marasigan became friends with Dominguez, who was then agriculture secretary during the term of former president Corazon Aquino.

Aside from working as DOF consultant, Marasigan was public relations adviser of Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. and Tagum Development Corp. in their bitter feud with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Senseless

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has been tapped to conduct parallel probe on the killing of the Marasigan brothers.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued a department order tasking the NBI to identify the perpetrators as well as the motive of the killing.

Aguirre issued the order as head of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security.

“I am duty-bound to order this probe to get to the bottom of the attack. Our goal is to prevent similar attacks in the future. We want our NBI to explore all angles,” Aguirre said.

In a statement released by Malacañang, Task Force executive director Joel Egco also condemned the killing.

“The Presidential Task Force on Media Security is deeply saddened and strongly condemns, in no uncertain terms, the killing of Michael D. Marasigan, former editor of BusinessWorld, and his brother Christopher in San Juan City yesterday,” Egco said. – Mary Grace Padin, Edu Punay, Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, Emmanuel Tupas