Catholic radio station technician killed in ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A senior technician of a Catholic radio station, operating in this city for seven decades now, was killed in a daring ambush on Tuesday afternoon, July 14, in the nearby Barangay Limbo in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao del Norte.

The slain 56-year-old Dennis Pido was popular for his overt, extensive involvement in the peacebuilding activities of his employer, the Station DXMS in Cotabato City of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, which pioneered peace and conflict-sensitive broadcast journalism in Central Mindanao.

The Station DXMS is one of the six radio stations in Central Mindanao of the Oblate-owned Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation.

Pido was also known for his free repairs of malfunctioning radio sets of friends and residents of Cotabato City and in his homeplace, Barangay Manuangan in Pigcawayan town in Cotabato.

Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that Pido was riding his motorcycle, on his way to Cotabato City from his hometown for his nighttime duty at Station DXMS, when he was attacked by men armed with pistols at a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Limbo in Sultan Kudarat, killing him instantly.

His assailants immediately escaped using a getaway motorcycle, according to investigators from the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station and barangay officials who responded to the incident.

Pido was declared dead on arrival by doctors at the Cotabato Sanitarium General Hospital in nearby Barangay Pinaring in Sultan Kudarat, where emergency responders brought him for treatment.

Salanguit said officials of the Sultan Kudarat municipal police and barangay officials are cooperating in identifying the killers of Pido for prosecution.