Police arrest suspect in slay of broadcaster

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — One of the two suspects in the murder of Iloilo-based broadcaster last year was arrested in Negros Occidental yesterday (Wednesday) morning, a report of InterAksyon.com said.Suspect Noel Guimeroy was arrested in Brgy. Tinungan in Isabela town at 6 a.m. yesterday on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Felipe Banzon of the Regional Trial Court in Silay City, said Chief Insp. Cresenciano Cordero of the CIDG in Negros Occidental.

Another suspect, former militiaman Joel Calungsod, remains at-large. Calungsod and Guimeroy have been charged with the murder of broadcaster Niel “Lito” Jimena who was gunned down in E. B. Magalona town of Negros Occidental on August 22 last year.

Jimena, a resident of La Paz district in Iloilo City, was a former informant of the PDEA and worked as a radio blocktime host, anchoring several programs in Iloilo radio stations for a business tycoon in that city. He escaped a slay try in 2010.

Guimeroy’s arrest came two weeks before the first death anniversary of Jimena. “He was very cooperative and his wife said he was actually expecting us,” Cordero described Guimeroy’s arrest.

Cordero said eyewitnesses have identified Guimeroy as one of two men riding a motorcycle who chased down Jimena and shot the victim with automatic pistols in Barangay Tabigue. It has not been determined yet, however, if Guimeroy was the gunman or the driver of the motorcycle, he said.

Cordero said Guimeroy denied his participation in the murder although he admitted knowing Calungsod. “He even told us that Calungsod called him some two weeks ago asking about the sale of fighting cocks,” he said.

The investigation of Task Force 3rd District showed the broadcaster had told his live-in partner he suspected a government official was behind death threats he had been receiving. But authorities have still not determined if his murder was related to his work as a broadcaster or for some other reason.

Task Force chief, Supt. Samuel Mina, earlier said the gunmen could not be from Negros Occidental since they did not bother to conceal their identities with masks during the killing.

Mike Jimena, brother of Niel, thanked the CIDG agents for their persistence in pursuing the killers. “We are very happy that they managed to arrest the suspect two weeks before our brother’s death anniversary,” he told local radio station dyEZ Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod.

Cordero said the arrest of Guimeroy is a result of the intensified campaign ordered by CIDG chief, Director Samuel Pagdilao, against killers of journalists in the country, InterAksyon.com added in the report.