Ex-reporter killed in ambush in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / April 14, 2010) – A former radio reporter was fatally ambushed Wednesday in the restive southern Philippine region, where at least 32 media workers were also brutally killed last year.

Media reports said gunmen opened fire at Edwin Segue in Ozamiz City. Two gunmen attacked Segue, who was driving his vehicle to Clarin town in Misamis Occidental province, the ABS-CBN Television said, quoting reports from the police.

The motive of the attack was unclear, but police said it launched an investigation into the murder.

Last year, gunmen also murdered 32 journalists who were accompanying a political caravan in Maguindanao province. At least 57 people were killed in the attack blamed to the powerful Ampatuan clan, police and military said.

Most of the clan’s influential members, including its patriarch Andal Ampatuan Snr ands his son and namesake, were eventually arrested after witnesses to the brutal murders accused them of masterminding the massacre, an allegation they strongly denied. (Merlyn Manos and Becky de Asis contributed to this report.)