NBI probes Mei’s murder

PHOTO from Mei Magsino’s Facebook page

By Julius D. Mariveles

“It’s not limited to the work-related angle,” lawyer Constantino Joson, NBI Region IV director, said Tuesday, a day after he was instructed by Bureau Director Virgilio Mendez to conduct a full-blown investigation into Magsino’ murder.

A personal angle is also being looked into but Joson, interviewed at the wake, said he won’t disclose the third one yet.

A report on the website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, for where Magsino had worked earlier as a correspondent, quoted Joson as saying that the NBI is also looking at “love angle” as one of the possible motives for the killing.

The NBI probe will run parallel to that being conducted by the Batangas Provincial Police Office that has also been directed by the PNP national office to proritize the solution of Magsino’s murder.

Joson and other NBI probers on Tuesday interviewed Magsino’s father, former Army colonel Danilo Magsino; her partner, chiropractor Benjie Reyes; and other members of her family.

NBI REGIONAL DIR. CRISANTO JOSON | Screengrab from Cong B. Corrales | PCIJ video

The NBI cannot classify yet classify the killing of Magsino as a media murder case, he said, because “it would depend on the evidence” that could be gathered in the following days. Ye, he added, it might take the NBI months, even years, to come up with the results of a “complete and thorough investigation.”

Magsino had written for the PCIJ’s “Local Bosses Across the Country” series in 2007 the story “Luck and the Governor” that focused on the alleged abuses and corruption of then Batangas Gov. Armando Sanchez.

A report on the print edition of the Inquirer also said that Magsino created two public groups on Facebook – Taga Bauan, Batangas, Ka Kung… (You are From Bauan, Batangas, if…), which discussed issues of graft and corruption; and Barako Batangas, which discussed issues from across the province.

Aside from having a former Army colonel as her father, Magsino, 40 (not 41 as earlier reported), also has a retired general for an uncle. Another uncle, Sael Magsino, ran but lost for councilor under the Nacionalista Party.

Town Mayor Ryanh M. Dolor and majority of the councilors are members of the Liberal Party.

The Batangas provincial government declared Magsino a persona non grata after she and Sanchez had a confrontation during a news conference, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said in a report in 2005. it also said Magsino was asking favors from Sanchez but the governor turned her down.

Sanchez died on April 2010 after suffering a stroke.

Joson also said that they will be requesting the family to submit some digital equipment owned by Magsino for forensic examination, including her mobile phone and a laptop computer.

The spent casing of a .45 caliber bullet, which Reyes presumed was the type of handgun used in the killing of Magsino, is now with her family and has yet to be turned over to the NBI or the police.

Reyes said Magsino’s’ father took the casing that was found near her body because the local police took so long to arrive at the scene of the killing. In fact, Reyes added, the body of his partner was sprawled at least three hours on the street before it was taken to a local morgue.

The NBI will also request one of the shops in the village of Balagtas, the place where she was shot, to submit a clip from their closed-circuit TV (CCTV) camera that is believed to have recorded the killing of Magsino.

The NBI regional office headed by Joson also investigated two years ago the brutal killing of Batangas assistant provincial prosecutor Alexander Sandoval who was killed on June 13, 2013.