Nestor Micator, a news reporter at the local D’Empire Radio Station, was shot and killed on May 21 at around 6:45 p.m. by two unidentified men riding a motorcycle in front of a village hall in Malidegao town, Cotabato province.
The journalist was declared dead on arrival from a gunshot wound to the head at Cruzado Medical Hospital. The assailants fled the scene on a motorcycle without license plates, news reports said.
Micator’s widow, Ruvy, said that three people arrested in a previous drug bust had blamed her husband’s news reporting on police anti-drug operations for their arrests, according to an Inquirer.net report.
Police said they had identified three persons of interest, but were withholding their names while investigators built their case, the same report said. CCTV cameras near the crime scene were not functioning, officials quoted in the report said.
Micator also served on a village council in Fort Pikit, which is in Malidegao town, involved in local conflict resolution. Authorities are investigating whether his killing was related to his broadcast journalism or his role on the council.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), a state body tasked with investigating media killings, told CPJ via email that it considered Micator’s murder as “work-related” due to his role as a media witness in police drug operations, which the task force said “exposed him to threats.”
PTFoMS Executive Director Jose Torres Jr. told CPJ via email that his agency was coordinating with law enforcement authorities to build the case for prosecution.
He said a suspect had been identified but could not be made public while investigations were ongoing. Torres Jr. said further investigations would seek to identify the motorcycle’s driver and other accomplices.
Alyssa Clarin, director at the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a local press freedom group, told CPJ via email that Micator’s reporting on buy-bust drug arrests and role as a media witness in drug-related operations and cases was the “most plausible motive” for his killing.
The Philippine National Police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.