Zamboanga City radioman slain

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A radio announcer, who had strongly criticized local politicians, criminal syndicates and Muslim guerrillas, was shot dead by two still unidentified gunmen on his way to work yesterday morning, police said.

The victim, Candelario "Jhun" Cayona, 37, who worked for the dxLL Radyo Ukay of the University of Mindanao Broadcasting Network (UMBN), was shot with caliber .45 pistols in the head and different parts of the body.

Superintendent Mario Yanga, city police chief, said Cayona, wearing a white shirt, a pair of gray pants and slippers, had just left his home in the Atilano compound in Barangay Canelar, aboard a motorcycle, when the assassins’ bullets felled him about four to five meters from the main road.

Probers found eight spent .45 shells at the crime scene.

Inspector Bayani Gucela said they already have suspects and urged witnesses to come forward to help solve the killing speedily.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Cayona’s associates said he made many enemies with his critical commentaries on local politicians as well as Muslim guerrillas operating around Zamboanga.

At one time, they said, he was threatened on air by Abu Sabaya, spokesman of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf.

Last week, Cayona said on air that he was being tailed by a hired killer and had been receiving death threats from "people who were angry at me because of my commentaries against them," Al Jacinto, a fellow broadcaster, quoted him as saying.

Cayona began his radio career as a beat reporter of the old dxLL AM station in 1990. When the radio station temporarily closed, he joined dxRC of RGMA where he started becoming known as a hard-hitting commentator exposing anomalies.

Cayona later transferred to dxRZ Radyo Agong and after a short stint there, rejoined dxLL when it reopened last year.

He handled three primetime public affairs programs on dxLL from Mondays to Saturdays, namely, Buenas Dias Zamboanga (Good Morning Zamboanga), Textimonia and Aksyon Derecho.

"I’m not afraid to die if it means the betterment of the people and to expose anomalies," Cayona was quoted as saying before he was killed.

Noel Erasga, president of the Zamboanga Press Club, condemned Cayona’s murder and urged the police to bring the perpetrators to justice.

About a dozen radio stations in Zamboanga simultaneously offered prayers for five minutes for Cayona hours after he was gunned down.

Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat, who used to be one of the subjects of Cayona’s commentaries, ordered the police to work on the early solution of the case.

Cayona was the second dxLL broadcaster killed in a span of three years. On March 30, 1998, Rey Bancairin was shot dead by a lone gunman while hosting his radio program.