Bicol mediaman shot dead

LEGAZPI CITY — A hard-hitting radio commentator and publisher of a local weekly was felled by two assassins’ bullets while he was on his way to his 30-minute radio program yesterday morning.

Forty-five-year-old Rowell Endrinal, a blocktimer of local radio station dzRC, was about to board his car a few meters away from his house in Barangay Oro Site here when he was gunned down.

Endrinal, fondly called "Mr. Guapo," sustained gunshot wounds from 9-mm. pistols in the abdomen, left leg and the most fatal, in the chin, with the bullet piercing through his nape, said Superintendent Eriberto Olitoquit, city police chief.

Endrinal, a father of three children, was the publisher of the local weekly Metro News and the Albay coordinator of the Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc. (PAPI).

He hosted the radio program "Metro Banat" which went on air from 6:30 to 7 a.m. daily.

Chief Superintendent Jaime Lasar, Bicol police director, said he has formed Task Force Guapo to conduct a thorough investigation into Endrinal’s killing.

"It is still very early to tell what are the possible motives behind the killing. We will make the pronouncement after a thorough investigation is done," he said.

Olitoquit said at least two witnesses have volunteered to give descriptions of the assailants whom they claimed had frequented Endrinal’s community for three days before the killing.

"We hope to solve this crime immediately if witnesses will cooperate with us," Olitoquit said.

Reports said Endrinal carried a caliber .45 pistol when he was gunned down. His wife, Mina, said he had received death threats on his cellular phone prior to his slaying.

Endrinal worked for radio station dwRL when it transferred here from Batangas City in the 1980s. He left dwRL in 1999 and became a blocktime announcer at dzRC here.

Endrinal, known for his hard-hitting commentaries against local politicians and on issues such as the resurgence of jueteng in the province, was the president of PRENSA, a local print and radio group. He recently put up a political consultancy group.

Due to his critical statements, Endrinal was shot in the buttocks by an Albay mayor two years ago. He also had figured in fisticuffs with a bodyguard of a former mayor of Oas town.

Rogie Abril, Albay chapter president of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), said they will issue a manifesto condemning Endrinal’s murder.

"Whatever could be the motives (behind) the killing, we cannot allow a mediaman to be shot because of his commentaries. This is an affront to press freedom," he said.

In a statement, Sen. Noli de Castro condemned Endrinal’s killing and called on the Philippine National Police to "immediately pursue the unconscionable perpetrators of the murder."

"I consider this an attack against democracy," said De Castro, who authored Senate Bill No. 391 granting special protection and additional benefits to media people who, while in the performance of their occupation, shall be deemed persons in authority.

In 2003, two other Bicol journalists were gunned down. Last Dec. 2, Nelson Nadura, a Masbate City broadcaster, was gunned down near his radio station.

On April 28 last year, another radioman, John Villanueva Jr., was fatally shot a few meters away from his residence in Camalig, Albay.

Three years ago, Claire Domingo was killed while she was boarding a tricycle shortly after her broadcast at a Bombo Radyo station here.

Legazpi City broadcaster Joy Militante died after she was hit by hard objects thrown by unknown assailants inside her boarding house.

Seven journalists were murdered in the country last year, police said.

Meanwhile, Metro Manila radio station dzRH said unknown men shot up the offices of its affiliate station in Tandag City in Surigao del Sur before dawn last Wednesday.

There were no casualties in the attack, the station said. — With AFP report