Maurito Lim

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An unidentified gunman shot Lim in the head after the journalist arrived at around 11 a.m. for his regular “Chairman Mao On Board” news program at dyRD radio station in Bohol province’s Tagbilaran City, according to news reports. The assailant fled the scene on a motorcycle, the reports said.

Lim, 71, underwent emergency surgery at Tagbilaran City’s Governor Celestino Gallares Hospital for a bullet wound in his jaw and face, but died later the same day, news reports said.

Police involved in a task force investigating his murder said they examined closed-circuit television camera footage of the murder scene but could not identify the gunman because his face was obscured by a baseball cap, news reports said. Task force officials also said they were investigating whether Lim’s death was related to his journalism.

Lim leased airtime on dyRD station, in a practice known as “block-timing” in the Philippines, for his show. Leo Udtuhan, vice chairman of the Tagbilaran branch of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, told reporters that Lim’s broadcast reports often alleged local official involvement in the illegal drug trade, according to news accounts.

Lim’s wife, Nunilone Lim, told reporters she was unaware of any threats made against the journalist, news reports said.

Lim, a businessman, also leased radio airtime on dyRD to promote a local health supplement he sold privately, according to the local Daily Inquirer.

The Manila Bulletin cited Senior Supt. Dennis Palo Agustin, Bohol police director, as saying that police were also looking into property disputes as a possible motive.