'Radio host slain for helping neighbors'

MANILA, Philippines - The husband of a radio broadcaster gunned down in Malabon City Thursday said yesterday his wife was killed because she had been helping the poor, particularly their neighbors in Barangay Maysilo.

John Sumera said his wife Marlina “Len” Flores Sumera, 45, anchorwoman of dzME “Arangkada 1530,” a public service program, was murdered because she helped their neighbors on Silonian street and of her plans to put up development projects in the area.

“As a media personality, Len was rendering public service and one of her aims is to help our neighbors legally own their houses but she happened to confront a syndicate,” John told The STAR in a telephone interview. “This is what I would like to stress – that her death is in relation to her job of giving service to the needy.”

John said the police were right in saying that a well-entrenched syndicate engaged in professional squatting was responsible for his wife’s killing. He did not elaborate.

He said they would bury his wife at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden in Novaliches, Quezon City at 10 a.m. today.

Sumera was walking a few meters away from her house on Silonian street in Barangay Maysilo on her way to work when she was shot at around 9:35 a.m.

Police said that one of the four attackers was a woman.

Superintendent Rio Gatacilo, Northern Police District public information office chief, said Sumera’s attackers are contract killers who were also tagged in the murder of Edwin Abella, chairman of Barangay North Bay Boulevard South, Navotas last March 15.

Sumera, president of Silonian Homeowners Association (SHA) in Barangay Maysilo, was about to implement a P2.2-million project on Silonian street that include road widening, canal development, and a multi-purpose hall when she was killed.

Another homeowners’ group, the Kapitbahayan at Samahan sa Maysilo (Kasama), headed by Emma Nuqui, claimed ownership of the 4.2-hectare National Housing Authority property and opposed the project, which would affect at least 29 houses of Kasama members.