P150T bounty set for info on killer of Bohol broadcaster

CEBU, Philippines – A P150,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the killer of Bohol radio commentator Maurito Lim, according to GMA7 News report yesterday.

The Tagbilaran City Police announced the offer as it formed Task Force Mao to investigate Lim’s murder. The Philippine Information Agency also tweeted late Monday that Chief Inspector George Vale, chief of the Tagbilaran Police, said the footage from closed-circuit television pointed to a “professional hitman” as the killer.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines late Saturday challenged the government to act swiftly to get the killer of Lim, who was gunned down while about to report for work at dyRD in Tagbilaran City on Saturday. “We have run out of words of condemnation in the face of the murder of yet another colleague,” the NUJP said.

The NUJP said “Maurito Lim is the second journalist murdered in Bohol, the 172nd since 1986, and the 31st under the administration of Benigno Aquino III.”

The NUJP, as well as the International Federation of Journalists, noted Lim, in his radio program, had been hitting hard at local officials linked to the illegal drug trade.

The IFJ on Monday voiced “deep outrage over the killing of Lim, and the “continued disregard for the life of journalists and media workers in the country.” It also called on the government “to immediately act to find the gunman and any masterminds behind the order to kill the outspoken journalist.”

IFJ-Asia Pacific acting director Jane Worthington, in a statement, said, “The killing of Lim is a despicable and cowardly act of the highest order.”

Meanwhile, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday condemned the murder of Lim, as he reiterated his call for the Senate to probe the spate of media killings, and for the Philippine National Police to exert extra effort in arresting the killers of media practitioners.

“We cannot allow impunity to reign especially at the expense of press freedom. The savage media attack again blotted the country’s image being among the five most dangerous places for journalists in the world,” Pimentel said. — From the wires