Palace condemns killing of Bohol broadcaster

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang condemned yesterday the killing of 71-year-old Bohol-based radio broadcaster Maurito Lim over the weekend, the 32nd journalist slain since President Aquino assumed office.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said law enforcement agencies, primarily the Philippine National Police (PNP), have implemented measures to arrest the suspect and hold him accountable for the murder last Saturday.

“The government recognizes the important role of media men in our society,” he said in Filipino. “Therefore it continues to cooperate with journalists and workers in mass media to protect and uphold press freedom.”

A lone assailant shot Lim at close range when he was about to enter radio station dyRD’s building after parking his Isuzu Crosswind, according to reports.

Witnesses said the gunman fled on a motorcycle.

Police recovered a spent shell of a .45 caliber pistol at the scene.

Lim was found slumped inside his vehicle with a gunshot wound in the face. The vehicle’s windshield bore a bullet hole. Lim died on the way to a nearby hospital.

Police said all angles are being investigated, including the possibility of revenge in relation to his work as a block time radio announcer.

Lim, an engineer by profession, was popularly known as “Chairman Mao on Board” in his weekly noontime radio program.

He had previously worked with the National Power Corp.

Lim was a member of the Bohol Tri-media Association (BTMA) headed by Peter Dejaresco, whose family owns dyRD and semi-weekly newspaper The Bohol Chronicle.

Lim’s murder occurred after Nerlita Ledesma, a reporter of tabloid Abante, was shot dead in Bataan last month.