Radio reporter killed in Cotabato ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed a radio reporter in an ambush on Thursday night, May 21, in Barangay Fort Pikit in Malidegao town in Cotabato province.

Local executives and police investigators told reporters on Friday morning that the ambush victim Nestor Micator, 56, a news reporter and disc jockey of the Empire Radio Station in the center of Malidegao, died instantly from a bullet wound to the head.

Micator is also a member of the lupon, or group of community leaders in Fort Pikit, helping their barangay government resolve local peace and security issues and conflicts among villagers.

Malidegao, where Barangay Fort Pikit is located, is one of eight newly-created towns in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but are inside Cotabato province under Administrative Region 12.

Local executives and Capt. Steffie Salanguit, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Friday that Micator and his 51-year-old wife, Ruvy, were riding a motorcycle on their way home from somewhere when they were attacked by gunmen at one spot near the barangay hall in Fort Pikit.

Moro datus and municipal officials in Malidegao said Micator, who was hit by a .45 caliber pistol bullet in the head, was declared dead on arrival by a doctor in the nearby Cruzado Medical Hospital, where emergency responders brought him for treatment.

Micator’s spouse luckily survived the ambush with only superficial bruises caused by the crash of their motorcycle after he lost control of it as he passed out due to the gunshot wound to his head.

Their assailants escaped using getaway motorcycles without plate numbers.

Officials of the Malidegao police force and local executives said they are unsure yet if the apparent premeditated murder of Micator was related to his work as a radio reporter, or linked to his being a barangay official in Fort Pikit.

Members of the Kampilan Press Corps covering the activities of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and its units in Cotabato province and in other areas in Central Mindanao have condemned the incident and urged officials of the Malidegao Municipal Police Station and local executives to cooperate in identifying the killers of Micator for prosecution.