'Occasional newsman' killed in General Santos City gun attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A seasonal publisher of newsletters and local newspapers favoring political blocs during election periods was killed in a gun attack early Monday in Barangay West in General Santos City

Most reporters in General Santos City and in provinces around do not consider the 74-year-old victim, Manuel Suansing Malinao, a member of the mainstream media community owing to his being a publicist only for political parties involved in electoral exercises.

Citing an initial report from the General Santos City Police Office, Brig. Gen. Percival Augustus Placer, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said on Saturday that Malinao was repeatedly shot with a pistol by an attacker in their residential yard in Purok Sta. Cruz in the Silway area in Barangay West, killing him on the spot.

“He was more of a seasonal press relations person for political groups, not a full-fledged media practitioner,” an official of a big press corps in Central Mindanao, who requested anonymity, said.

The killer of Malinao had escaped before responding barangay tanods could reach the scene, according to Placer.

Malinao was reportedly instrumental in the filing of graft cases before the Ombudsman against a number of local executives and politicians after every election.

It is known too in the Soccsksargen Region, covering South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, that he was also partly responsible for the building of a graft case against former General Santos City Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr. that led to his conviction in 2020 and perpetual disqualification from public office.

People close to Malinao, police officials and barangay leaders are certain that the atrocity that left him dead is not even related to his having been an “occasional publicist” for political quarters that he had worked for during elections.