09 August 2008
Dennis Cuesta
Shooting
A radio journalist died Saturday from gunshot wounds in the southern Philippines, becoming the second reporter from his network to be killed in less than a week, a colleague said.
Dennis Cuesta, a commentator and program director for Radio Mindanao Network in General Santos City, was shot four times by assailants on motorbikes as he walked home Monday. Mel Coronel, also a commentator at the network, said Cuesta, 38, never recovered from a coma and died in intensive care on Saturday.
More than a dozen staff members at the network visited Cuesta at the hospital Saturday after hearing he had slightly opened his left eye and moved his eyeball, Coronel said.
"We went inside to talk to him. It was like he was saying goodbye to us," Coronel said. Doctors later said his heartbeat slowly weakened and he could not be revived.
Another Radio Mindanao journalist, Martin Roxas, 32, was fatally shot in central Roxas city Thursday by a gunman, also on a motorcycle. The network's assistant vice president, Rey Bayoging, has said the attacks on Cuesta and Roxas, whom he described as hard-hitting commentators, were work-related.
General Santos police Chief Roberto Po said investigators were looking at some "hotheaded" personalities who may have been angered by some of Cuesta's reports.
