A group of businessmen is offering P200,000 reward for the arrest of the killers of 62-year-old journalist Virgilio Maganes in Pangasinan.
Engineer Rosendo So, head of the Chinese Filipino Chamber of Commerce Eastern Pangasinan, said the cash reward will be given to a person who can give information that would lead to the apprehension of the perpetrators and even the mastermind.
Maganes, broadcaster and a writer at a local newspaper in Pangasinan, was gunned down as he was about to return to his residence in Sitio Licsab, Barangay San Blas in Villasis, Pangasinan early Tuesday, November 10.
Investigation showed that Maganes had just stepped out to buy cigarettes and was about to return to the family residence at around 6:45 a.m. when two men onboard a motorcycle arrived and shot him six times. He died on the spot.
Villasis Mayor Nonato Abrenica, Police Regional Office 1 director Brig. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., and Presidential Task Force on Media Security executive director Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco visited Maganes’ wake on Wednesday.
According to Egco, the case of Maganes is now considered a top priority case in Region 1.
Egco told the Pangasinan media that as representative of the office of President Duterte, he told the Philippine National Police to conduct a thorough investigation .
“I instructed them to investigate, to identify suspects and the mastermind,“ he said.
“Marami akong nalaman, three possible angles here — internal squabble, old grudge and politics,” Egco added.
Meanwhile, Mayor Abrenica said he also wants perpetrators to be arrested immediately.
Azurin on the other hand said, the killing of Maganes is a work of gun-for-hire.
“It seems that the perpetrators had familiarized with the area,“ Azurin added. (Liezle Basa Inigo)
