Bataan columnist shot dead

Graciano Aquino, a columnist for a Central Luzon newspaper, was shot and killed at close range by unidentified suspects last 21 January inside a cockpit arena in Morong town, Bataan.

Senior Supt. Hernando Zafra, head of Bataan police, said that the local communist group, Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB), could be behind the killing of Aquino, a writer for the weekly Central Luzon Forum based in the same province.

Aquino succumbed to two bullet wounds on the nape. The circumstances behind the columnist’s slay remain unclear, although several journalists confirmed he was lambasting several officials in Bataan. Aquino was the third Bataan journalist to be killed since 1986, following Ruben Manrique (1988) and Romeo Binungcal (2004).

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