Radio Blocktimer Killed in Butuan City

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – A radio blocktimer was killed in Butuan City on 20 April 2019. Butuan City is 799 kilometers south of Manila. “Blocktiming” is a Philippine practice in which broadcasters buy blocks of time to air sponsored programs.

Francis Patindol, a blocktimer in dxJM 95.9 FM, was outside a photocopying center along Narra Road, Brgy. New Society at around 10 am when he was stabbed in the left chest. Patindol managed to walk to Manuel J. Santos Hospital which was only a block away, but died later.

Based on eyewitness testimony, Butuan police identified the suspect as an alias Ola Saramsamen, a jeepney dispatcher. According to the initial investigation, the suspect was drunk and joined in the conversation between Patindol and his companion. The suspect got into an argument with Patindol and left to get the knife of a nearby mango vendor.

Patindol, a Cagayan de Oro City native, was one of the hosts of Latigo, which aired Monday to Saturday from 7 to 9 am. Before his death, he was also the head area coordinator of the Abante Mindanao partylist in Butuan City. This was confirmed to CMFR by Eddie Baltazar, Patindol’s assistant coordinator who was with him when the stabbing incident happened.

Patindol was formerly a program director of dxCO 1044 AM, a sister station of dxJM based in Opol town, Misamis Oriental.

Nonoy Espina, national chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that based on police investigation and information provided by the local chapter of NUJP, the killing was not related to Patindol’s work.

Cagayan de Oro-based newspaper Mindanao Gold Star Daily reported the statement of Gilberto Cruz, CARAGA Region Police Director, that he has ordered the police to intensify the hunt for the suspected assailant.