Radio block-timer, shot dead in NegOcc

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – A block-time radio broadcaster based in Iloilo was assassinated along the highway of E.B. Magalona town, in northern Negros Occidental late Monday afternoon, police said.

Neil Aranga Jimena, 42, a native of Iloilo City but a resident of Hacienda Teresa Brgy. Alicante in E.B. Magalona, was supposed to start a block-time program with Radio Mindanao Network in Iloilo City Tuesday night.

SPO4 Leonardo Cobing, E.B. Magalona police officer-in-charge, said Jimena was declared dead on arrival at the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital from five gunshot wounds from a .45 caliber pistol.

Police reports said Jimena was riding his motorcycle in Hacienda San Jose Brgy. Damgo in the same town when he was gunned down by two men on board another motorcycle, who had been chasing him.

Residents in the area said they heard gunshots and saw Jimena’s motorcycle turn around. The chase went on for about five minutes on a two-kilometer stretch until the broadcaster’s motorbike fell on the wayside along Brgy. 3 Poblacion.

E. B. Magalona Mayor David Albert Lacson urged the local police to speed up its investigation, but stressed that the killing was “an isolated incident.”

Sources, however, claimed that the incident could be drug-related and had nothing to do with his profession as a media man.

Authorities refused to divulge developments in their investigation and would not discuss possible angles they are exploring.

Jimena was previously a radio block-timer with dyRP in Iloilo, which closed down years ago, and dyAG in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. He was also a contributor for Dyaryo Iloilo.

His friend Larry Trinidad, a block-timer for the local radio dyRL in Bacolod, claimed Jimena was an asset for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) but was terminated sometime in 2008.

Police said this was not the first reported shooting against Jimena, who they said was also shot near Malago Bridge in Victorias City in September 2009.

The head of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Nestor Burgos, said they were checking if Jimena’s killing was related to his work as journalist. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe