CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna , Philippines – Two men shot dead a tabloid reporter in front of her son in Bacoor, Cavite yesterday.
Rubylita Garcia, 52, a reporter of Remate tabloid and a block timer of dwAD radio station in Cavite, died while being treated at the St. Dominic hospital for five gunshot wounds in the body.
Garcia, president of the Confederation of Active Media Practitioners Organization (CAMPO) in Region4A, was shot at close range by two gunmen in front of her house in Barangay Talaba 4 around 10:15 a.m.
Witness Rosell Calderon said the suspects chatted for a few minutes with Garcia before opening fire.
The suspects fled toward the city center, witnesses said.
Police recovered five shells of a .38 caliber pistol at the scene.
Witnesses told police they earlier saw the gunmen loitering around the area before proceeding to Garcia’s house.
Investigator PO3 Romar Sinnung of the Bacoor police said a relative and neighbor heard gunshots and saw the gunmen fleeing.
Sinnung said the relative described the gunmen to the police.
Cavite media practitioners said the attack could be work-related since Garcia was known as a hard-hitting journalist who exposed wrongdoing in the Cavite police force.
Garcia started as a block-timer in dwAD radio station only two weeks ago.
A CAMPO member said Garcia had an altercation with some Cavite police officers last Wednesday. The journalist declined to elaborate for safety reasons.
The Police Regional Office Press Corps and Camp Vicente Lim Press Corps, along with other media organizations in the Calabarzon region condemned the murder and called on the regional police command to quickly solve the crime.
National media organizations led by the National Press Club and the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) also condemned the killing.
The NUJP in a statement demanded that authorities “identify and arrest the killers and put all those responsible behind bars.â€
Garcia was the 11th media practitioner in the region killed in connection with their work.
Superintendent Romano Cardiño, Cavite regional police intelligence unit, said they formed a task force to investigate the incident.
Garcia was killed a week after the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings and the PNP’s Task Force Usig began looking into the attempt on the life of Mindoro broadcaster Radamalyn Cardoza, a block timer of radio station Bambi-FM.
An official said police security would be provided for Cardoza, who survived the attack in a restaurant in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro on March 28.
The official said prosecutors would lead the probe. –Arnell Ozaeta, Cecille Suerte Felipe