Radio reporter shot dead in Zamboanga City

COTABATO CITY —A gunman shot dead a broadcast journalist in an attack in Barangay Tumaga in Zamboanga City on Tuesday night, October 22.

In separate reports released Wednesday, the Zamboanga City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-9 stated that Maria Vilma Lozano Rodriguez was shot thrice with .38 caliber revolver by an attacker while seated close to the store of her mother along Comet Street in Barangay Tumaga, killing her instantly. 

The killer of the 56-year-old Rodriguez, a single mother who has four children, managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the area.

She was declared dead on arrival by doctors in a hospital where she was brought by emergency responders for treatment.

Rodriguez was the host of the Barangay Action Center program on 105.9 EMedia radio in Zamboanga City, which also features a social media news platform.

Reporters in Zamboanga City informed colleagues in Central Mindanao and the Bangsamoro region via Facebook Messenger that Rodriguez had a deep-seated dispute with relatives whom she accused of spreading malicious allegations against her.

Their misunderstanding was reportedly referred to the barangay government of Tumaga for resolution. 

News reporters in Zamboanga City said Rodriguez was not a hard-hitting broadcast journalist.

Rodriguez had worked as a volunteer reporter of a Brigada radio station in Zamboanga City before she joined the E-Media broadcast and online news entity, according to reporters covering the Police Regional Office-9 and the military’s Western Mindanao Command. 

Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey Masauding, director of PRO-9, told reporters on Wednesday that their intelligence units and barangay officials in Tumaga are together trying to identify her killer for prosecution.