Philipines: Radio station manager shot, wounded

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="singlePageTitle" style="border: 0px; font-weight: normal !important; margin: 0px 0px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">DAGUPAN CITY—A radio station manager was shot and wounded by a lone gunman in Barangay (village) Pantal here while he was on his way home early morning on Tuesday, police said.</span></h1> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /> <div id="InRead" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Orlando “Orly” Navarro, 54, was talking to a tricycle driver around 1 a.m. on Tuesday when he was shot in the back, said  Supt. Christopher Abrahano, city police chief.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said Navarro, a commentator and station manager of dwIZ News Radio, attended a party in a hotel here and hailed a tricycle around 12:35 a.m. to take him home.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This was the third attack on a media worker in Pangasinan province since 2007 when broadcaster Allan Sison was shot and wounded here. In July last year, Jaime Aquino, a local newspaper publisher, was shot and wounded by a one of three men on a motorcycle in Sta. Barbara town.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Abrahano said Navarro alighted at the corner of a street near his house in Barangay Pantal. When the tricycle left, another tricycle arrived and Navarro engaged the driver in a conversation.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“While we were talking, I heard a gunshot. Then, I felt a thud on my back. I knew I was hit,” Navarro told the Inquirer.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ride to hospital</strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Navarro, former president of the Pangasinan Press and Radio Club and host of the news commentary program “Orly sa IZ,” said he immediately asked the tricycle driver to take him to the nearest hospital.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Abrahano said investigators had yet to establish if the attack was work-related or personal.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Work-related or not, we are determined to get who did this. We now have three persons of interest and we are investigating them,” he said.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said the shooting could not have been done by professional or hired killers.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There were no riding tandem and no escape vehicles,” he said. “It’s possible that the gunman was just in the vicinity.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Navarro, in a radio interview, said the shooting could have been the result of his commentaries against illegal drug pushers and users in the village.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This was the first gun attack on Navarro. In 2003, a politician had threatened to kill him while they were in a gathering. In 2010, a libel case was filed against him.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Treacherous</strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines’ (NUJP) Pangasinan chapter, in a statement, called on authorities to “ensure the safety of media practitioners who are only doing their job of exposing the threats and dangers to society.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jay Mendoza, president of the local chapter of Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), condemned the “treacherous and barbaric” shooting of Navarro.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We call on our lawmen and responsible agencies to get to the bottom of the incident and bring to justice the perpetrators of this senseless crime, which is a clear assault on press freedom and the local broadcast profession,” Mendoza said in a text message.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Amado Espino Jr. also denounced Navarro’s shooting.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I appeal to the police to get to the bottom of this crime and get the culprit and mastermind to the bar of justice,” Espino said in a statement. <strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reports from Gabriel Cardinoza and Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon</em></strong></span></div> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>

Philipines: Radio station manager shot, wounded

DAGUPAN CITY—A radio station manager was shot and wounded by a lone gunman in Barangay (village) Pantal here while he was on his way home ...

Read more »