Slain journalist working on several possible stories before fatal shooting, says partner

SAN PASCUAL, BATANGAS - Melinda "Mei" Magsino, the former Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent shot dead in broad daylight last Monday, was working on "several things" before the killing, her partner said.

 

"She was working on several things...Hindi ko siya pinakikialaman. I give her complete freedom in that aspect of what she wants to do, because when I met her, she was already like that," Benjamin Reyes, Magsino's partner of three years, said in an interview with GMA News Online and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

However, Reyes could not disclose what the possible stories were, saying, "I would like to let the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) do their job."

 

The NBI field office in Region IV-A has launched its own investigation into Magsino's killing, as ordered by their superiors in Manila.

 

According to NBI-Calabarzon regional director Constantino Joson, among the things they will look into are the contents of Magsino's phone and laptop.

 

Joson said they are looking at "at least three" angles for the killing, and they are not zeroing on Magsino's journalistic work yet because evidence may either point to that "or on something personal."

 

Magsino was working as a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, while also helping out in Reyes' chiropractic practice, her partner revealed during the interview.

 

If her death is related to her journalism work, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said she will be the 26th Philippine media worker killed under the Aquino administration.

 

Cyber sleuthing

 

A day before she was shot, her posts on her Facebook account hinted that she was being harassed by several accounts with a single Internet Protocol address. 

 

In a post on Sunday evening, she said that based on her personal investigation, she discovered that the accounts were owned by a councilor from a town in Batangas.

 

Magsino reported about then-Batangas Gov. Armando Sanchez' alleged involvement in the illegal numbers game, jueteng, in the province.

 

The Batangas City Police said they are looking at some angles, including the victim's social media posts on illegal gambling, a debt she was told she couldn't collect, and a love triangle.

 

Quiet wake

 

Currently, Magsino's remains lie in a mauve coffin placed in her uncle's house, a rather quiet wake for someone who was vocal, particularly on social media during her last days, and someone who made it her advocacy to expose injustices and corruptions in her province.

 

The former PDI correspondent, who turned 40 last January, was the third in the brood of seven, six of them girls. Both her parents had little to say to her colleagues from the PCIJ during the visit, taking condolences with quiet thanks before turning the floor over to Reyes. 

 

Her mother accepted the copy of her works with the publication, and expressed her gratitude to the journalists for coming all the way from Manila to pay their respects.

 

Family and friends, mostly in white, sat down to mourn and to pray, standing by the coffin to look at her from time to time. Some of them shied away from being photographed, even when only their backs were caught in the shot. "Mainit dito ngayon," one of them said as she asked for the photo to be deleted.

 

Reyes observed that the funeral parlor did an adequate job in restoring the part along her right brow, where the bullet went through. But there were burns on her hands, which he said she got was because the police had her lying on the street for "almost three hours" where she was shot.

 

"We just wanna see justice done. We wanna get these people (the perpetrators) off the streets because if not, they will keep repeating what they do," Reyes said.

 

Interment of Magsino's remains is scheduled on April 19.  — ELR/KG, GMA News