Saturday, August 07, 2004 Gunmen fire at 3 broadcasters By Garry Cabotaje
CEBU CITY -- Three newsmen in a luxury vehicle survived Thursday night when unidentified assailants ambushed them after they stopped at the busy intersection of N. Bacalso Ave. and V. Rama Ave., Cebu City.
This was the second attack this year on local mediamen, all radio broadcasters, and the third since June 2003.
George Benaojan, 26, Saul Kelvin Carrillo, 28, and Gildor Fuentes, 28, all of El Nuevo Bantay Radyo, escaped unhurt when three men, believed armed with revolvers, fired at them twice around 11:15 p.m.
The gunmen missed. So did the three broadcasters, who fired back.
The broadcasters were heading for Bantay Radyo, a station operated by Cebu Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr., from Minglanilla town on board Benaojan's white, three-door Mitsubishi Pajero.
They believed the gunmen tailed them.
But Delfin Nacion, a security guard at a phone company building near the crime scene, told radio dyAB that he doubted the three broadcasters were the targets of the attack.
He theorized instead that the assailants were planning to rob passengers of a 12F jeepney plying the Labangon route.
Upon Benaojan's request, the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) 7 will look into the incident and the possible motives for the assault.
Dark, raining
Benaojan and Fuentes insisted that they were the gunmen's targets as Carrillo, son of Bantay Radyo station manager Jun Carrillo, had just alighted from Benaojan's Pajero when a shot rang out.
Fuentes and Carrillo are volunteer reporters of the station.
Carrillo requested that he be dropped off along N. Bacalso Ave., where he lives.
Fuentes told Sun.Star Cebu that Carrillo managed to duck when a man, wearing a baseball cap, white sleeveless shirt and blue denims, fired at him.
The man and his two companions, who emerged from a white Toyota Corolla taxi, were just three meters away from the Pajero's rear, he said.
To save Carrillo, Fuentes said he opened their vehicle's right side window and fired two warning shots using Benaojan's .45 pistol, forcing their assailants to flee.
Fuentes quickly handed to Carrillo an Ingram machine pistol, still owned by Benaojan, and then fired at the fleeing gunmen.
He said they chased the armed men who fled towards the interior of Miller Hospital, passing by a Petron gasoline station. Fuentes opted not to pursue them, as it was dark and raining.
Fired back
Upon hearing the first shot, Benaojan said he drove his vehicle and turned right to a street heading towards the Taboan public market. The gunmen fired another shot.
To drive their attackers away, Benaojan said he pulled out his .45 pistol and fired a warning shot.
In radio interviews, Benaojan admitted that all the three firearms were his, adding that these were covered by PNP licenses from Camp Crame's Firearms and Explosives Division.
Benaojan said he is also a member of two Quezon City-based gun clubs, The Triple "A" Gun and Sports Club Inc. and ZAP-Shooters and Hunters Association.
He denied he flashed an NBI 7 metal badge to the responding police team led by PO3 Francisco Balansag Jr. of the San Nicolas Police Precinct.
Fuentes said the first law enforcers to respond were two police multi-cabs, followed by the Mobile Patrol Group, then Balansag's team. Not a single empty shell, though, was found at the crime scene.
Aside from reporting the news, Benaojan has a one-hour evening commentary program over Bantay Radyo dubbed "Expose ni Bay George."
Media attacks
Last month, veteran commentator Cirse "Choy" Torralba was shot outside Angel Radio on Don Jose Avila St., Cebu City right after his noontime radio program. He had just settled in his car's front seat when shot.
Torralba filed a criminal case against a young man, whom he identified as his attacker.
Local blocktimer Rey Cortez was also attacked while he was about to get in his car, parked at the Bureau of Customs compound in Aduana, Cebu City, on June 12, 2003. He survived a gunshot wound in his right thigh.
The latest attack on Cebu-based media workers came just hours after Arnel Manalo, a correspondent of a Manila tabloid and radio station dzRH, was killed in an ambush in Bauan town, Batangas.
A week earlier, broadcaster Roger Mariano of dzJC-Aksyon Radio Lao-ag City, was shot dead by unidentified assailants while heading home on his motorcycle.
At least 43 media workers in the country have been killed since democracy was restored in 1986, making the Philippines one of the most dangerous countries in which to practice journalism.
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