Thursday, June 22, 2006

Bounty Offered For Journalists' Killer

COTABATO CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 22 Jun) A P100,000 bounty has been offered for the arrest of the killer of two journalists who were gunned down in Kidapawan City in North Cotabato province on Mindanao island, police said Thursday.

Police have tagged Dionisio Madanggit, a suspected New People's Army rebel, as the killer of George Vigo and his wife Mazel. The couple was shot dead late Monday afternoon in Sandawa district.

Chief Supt. German Doria, the regional police chief, said Kidapawan City has offered the bounty to citizens who can provide information that will lead to the arrest of Madanggit.

Vigo, 33, was a writer for the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN), while his wife, Mazel Alave, 36, hosted a program at a Catholic-run radio station dxND in Kidapawan City.

Police said Mandanggit was with another companion who acted as lookout, but it did not identify the second suspect. Both escaped on a motorcycle after the attack. The motive of the attack is still unknown.


Other reports said Mandanggit was also a professional contract killer.

The NUJP said Vigo also was the executive director of the non-governmental organization Peoples' Kauyahan Foundation, Inc. (PKFI), which was behind many peace forums and dialogues in North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces.

The couple, who had 5 children, also founded the Federation of Reporters for Empowerment and Equality in the province.

Last month, gunmen also killed Fernando Batul, a broadcaster based in Palawan province in the central Philippines. He was the 5th journalist killed this year, the 42nd to die under the Arroyo administration and 79th since 1986 when press freedom was supposed to have been restored.

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