COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Officials condemned the attack at noontime Saturday on a local news team from ABS-CBN while in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur.
ABS-CBN local reporter Ronnie Enderes and his companions, cameraman Emelito Balansag and driver Garry Montecillo, were in Marawi City to gather updates on the bombing of a steel power relay pylon of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines in nearby Ramain town when they were attacked by gunmen riding a motorcycle together.
The three employees of ABS-CBN’s station in Iligan City survived unscathed the shooting frenzy, which damaged their vehicle bearing their outfit’s official logo.
Marawi City has lately been touted as the crime capital of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where trafficking of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) is done even near mosques and in school campuses.
The attack on the ABS-CBN news crew was preceded by the fatal ambush in October of Marawi City’s chief of police, Superintendent Al Abner Wahab Santos, in a busy spot there, while on his way to his office from a conference at the Lanao del Sur provincial police office.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, chair of the regional peace and order council, said the attack that nearly killed Enderes and his companions was an affront to the fourth estate.
Hataman described the atrocity as barbaric. He said the Marawi City police had been ordered to identify the culprits for them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law.
Lanao Del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. said he was saddened by the incident.
He said his administration has always been courteous to the media and is against any maltreatment of journalists.
Adiong said the local police and the provincial peace and order council, which he chairs, will do its best to identify the gunmen who attacked Enderes and his companions.