Shots fired at Abra journalist's house

BANGUED, Abra, Philippines – Still unidentified men fired three shots with a caliber .45 pistol at the house of an editor of the community weekly Abra Today before dawn Thursday.

Though unhurt, Marjorie Bandayrel-Trinidad, 25, news editor of Abra Today, believes that the attack was meant to scare her. 

The news weekly is published by the Diocese of Abra and a member of the Catholic Media Network.

Trinidad said she earlier had received a death threat apparently because of a negative news item about an official of an electric cooperative.

Although no one was hurt, Senior Superintendent Charlo Collado, Abra police director, has alerted his men on threats to journalists in the province, once touted as Cordillera’s “killing fields.” Security has been provided to Trinidad and her family following the shooting.

Bangued Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian condemned the attack against Trinidad and urged police to speed up their investigation and stop such dastardly acts.

The Baguio-Benguet chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines deplored the incident, too, and reminded authorities to finally clamp down on the culture of impunity brought about by the unsolved murders and harassment of journalists across the country.

Earlier, suspected guns-for-hire barged into the house of local broadcast journalist Richard Tuzon. – With Non Alquitran