Nueva Ecija radio reporter wounded in gun attack

BAGUIO CITY — A correspondent of a Nueva Ecija radio station was wounded after he was shot while on his way home aboard a tricycle last Friday, authorities said.

The attack on Rufino Gamboa, of radio station dzMM, came a day after the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), reacting to last Wednesday’s killing of Ilocos Norte radioman Andres Acosta, asked President Arroyo to put an end to the "senseless" killings of journalists in the country.

Gamboa, who also works for radio station dwNE in Palayan City, was shot twice by a motorcycle-riding man in San Jose City, said Rowena Paraan, of the Media Safety Office of the IFJ in Manila.

Gamboa, according to Paraan, had come from an affair where Nueva Ecija Vice Gov. Mariano Cristino Joson was the speaker.

Despite his gunshot wounds in the chest and left arm, Gamboa managed to alight from his motorcycle and run.

In an open letter to the President, IFJ president Christopher Warren said the murder of Acosta, 46, who was stabbed dead in Batac, Ilocos Norte, puts to 48 the total number of journalists killed since 2001, when Mrs. Arroyo came to power. Acosta is the 12th journalist slain this year.

"The International Federation of Journalists, as an organization representing more than 500,000 journalists in over 115 countries, implores you to take immediate action and put an end to the senseless bloodshed, and ensure those responsible for these deaths are brought to justice," Warren wrote the President.

He cited a local journalists’ group as quoting a police official as saying in a radio interview that Acosta’s killing was most likely related to his "line of work."

Police authorities, on the other hand, suspect that the killing of Acosta, a police reporter of radio station dzJC based in Laoag City, was motivated by a personal grudge.

Nonetheless, Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, Ilocos police director, has created Task Force Usig to go after Acosta’s killers.

Bataoil also ordered the Ilocos Norte police to intensify its hunt for the suspects, and sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in solving the case.

Acosta was attacked as he rode his motorcycle on his way home. He died from multiple stab wounds.

Acosta’s murder, Warren wrote Mrs. Arroyo, "adds to an already appalling record and sends a strong message to the world that your administration does not place any value in the lives of journalists or in an independent media and informed public." — With Cesar Ramirez, Myds Supnad