Renato Blanco, a radio reporter at Power 102.1 DYRY RFM, was stabbed in the neck by suspect Charles Amada during an altercation at the latter’s brother’s home in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental Province, on September 18, 2022, according to news reports. The reporter was declared dead on arrival at the town’s Mabinay Community Hospital, the reports said.
Amada surrendered and was taken into police custody soon after the killing. He is being held in pre-trial detention on murder charges, news reports said.
Lieutenant Colonel Roland Desiree Lavisto, a provincial police official, said that Amada confessed to Blanco’s murder during police interrogations and that Amada said he acted out of anger over Blanco’s critical radio commentaries of him and his political family.
Blanco, who was based in Mabinay, frequently reported on local politics, corruption, and social issues, according to a station representative who told CPJ via Facebook messenger and requested anonymity for security reasons.
The station representative said Blanco had alleged on his regular “Rakrakan sa Hapon Bulls Eye with Rey Blanco” radio program that Amada and his family members were involved in local corruption, including an overpricing scheme that resulted in local power outages.
The representative said Blanco had also reported on illegal quarrying, overpricing of medical supplies purchased during the pandemic, and alleged electoral fraud at this year’s May elections that caused thousands to march in the town’s streets in protest.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security, a state agency comprised of law enforcement agencies including the Philippine National Police (PNP) tasked with solving media murders, said in a September 19, 2022, statement that it presumed the killing was “work related” as a matter of policy but that it was “too early to determine the exact motive behind the incident.”
The task force responded to CPJ’s subsequent emailed request for comment by sending a link to a state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) report that quoted the agency “strongly condemning” the killing while sending its “deepest condolences” to Blanco’s family and friends, without elaboration or comment.
Police official Lavisto was quoted in a separate PNA report, also published on September 19, 2022, saying that Blanco faced two libel charges, a complaint under a local law on violence against women and children and was “at odds with” an unnamed local village chief, who he claimed Blanco was considering challenging in upcoming local elections.
Len Olea, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a local press advocacy organization, told CPJ by email that according to a local representative of his group and judging by news reports citing Amada’s confession that Blanco’s murder was “likely” related to his critical radio commentaries.
Jose Torres Jr., executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, told CPJ via email in mid-August 2025 that his agency considered Blanco’s case “work-related” due to his “critical on-air comments regarding the alleged perpetrator’s family, which are believed to be the motive for the attack.”
Torres said Amada’s trial was scheduled to begin on December 17, 2025, and that subsequent hearings would be held in March 2026.