CEBU (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 5, 2014) – The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said an alleged policeman who is one of two gunmen suspected of shooting a radio broadcaster in Iloilo City had been killed in Negros Occidental province in Western Visayas.
It said the remaining suspect in the shooting of dyOK Aksyon Radyo Iloilo reporter Jonavin Villalba is still at large. Villalba was wounded in the shooting last December 10. And unidentified men also threw bags of human feces at the dyOK’s office building two days after the attack on the broadcaster.
CMFR previously reported that two motorcycle gunmen shot Villalba outside his house in Jaro district.
The CMFR said a memorandum dated February 10 was forwarded to them by the Office of the Chief Philippine National Police and showed that the policeman, who is the primary suspect in the shooting of Villalba, was gunned down while driving his car in the village of Miranda in Hinigaran town on January 5.
Another report by the Visayan newspaper The Daily Guardian said 5 men were seen grabbing two black bags from the policeman’s car and then fled on a red van, but were arrested by pursuing cops who responded to the attack.
Criminal charges had been filed by the police against the 5 men. The motive of the policeman’s killing is unknown.
Attacks on journalists in the Philippines continue with impunity with dozens of victims killed over the past years.
The Committee to Protect Journalists based in the United States said the violence and threats against journalists, particularly in provincial areas, remained widespread as President Benigno Aquino’s vow to end impunity in media murders went unfulfilled during his fourth year in office. (Mindanao Examiner)
20