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SARIAYA,
Quezon—A media practitioner was killed and another was
wounded in an ambush staged by two motorcycle-riding
gunmen in this town on Monday.
Police
identified the fatality as Fausto “Bert” Sison, 60, a
blocktimer at radio station dzAT. He was killed on the
spot. Wounded was Liwayway Andaya, 30, Sison’s daughter
and correspondent of the local weekly newspaper Eye
Watch.
A
blocktimer is an individual who pays the radio station
for the time he uses in his broadcast. In exchange, he
gets all the proceeds of the advertisements placed in
his program.
Initial
investigation revealed that the victims were onboard a
car driven by Sison when the assailants fired at them in
sitio Malabag, barangay Lutucan, in this town.
Senior
Insp. Bryan Llaneta, chief of police of this town,
reported to Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas, Quezon police
commander, that another occupant of the waylaid vehicle,
Almira Panganiban, 24, who is also Sison’s daughter,
escaped injury when she played dead while the gunmen
were firing.
Llaneta
said around 6 p.m. Monday, Sison, Andaya and Panganiban
were in their car when two motorcycle-riding men
suddenly appeared and fired at the victims. Sison was
hit nine times in different parts of the body while
Andaya sustained wounds in the head and shoulder.
The
bonnet-clad assailants fled after the incident.
Investigators are looking into several motives of the
killing, including the alleged involvement of coconut-
lumber traders here, who Sison had been hitting in his
radio broadcasts.
Before
Sison and his companions were ambushed, they interviewed
Gov. Rafael Nantes of Quezon to get his assessment of
his one year in office.
Upon
learning of the ambush, Nantes ordered Posadas to launch
manhunt operations for the assailants.
Local
media practitioners in the province condemned the
killing and appealed to the authorities to immediately
arrest the assailants and file charges against them.
The
National Press Club (NPC) also condemned the killing,
calling it an attack on press freedom.
In a
statement, the NPC said: “While we laud the National
Police for immediately forming a special task force
under the Quezon police command to investigate this
latest attack on press freedom, this would hardly bring
comfort to Sison’s family, friends, relatives and to the
entire members of the Philippine media profession.
“Only
the quick arrest of the assailants and the
identification of the mastermind behind the attack can
assure us that the government is committed to protecting
journalists and that it is serious in removing the
‘culture of impunity’ that has emboldened those with
gripes against the media to settle their differences in
a violent manner.” |
