Isabela broadcaster escapes slay attempt

SANTIAGO CITY — Four unidentified men hurled a grenade at the house of a hard-hitting radio commentator here Saturday night, in what was the second failed attempt on his life since last September.

Superintendent Valfrey Tabian, city police chief, said Modesto "Odie" Gutierrez Jr., 45, a host-anchorman of dwSI, the only AM radio station here, and his wife were watching television during the incident.

The attack was the second on a provincial mediaman in a span of three days. Last Feb. 11, Legazpi City radioman and newspaper publisher Rowell Endrinal was shot dead while he was on his way to his morning program on radio station dzRC.

Police have tagged Bicol’s third most wanted man, Clarito Arizobal, in Endrinal’s assassination.

The grenade blast destroyed Gutierrez’s owner-type jeep and damaged the facade of his residence in Barangay Rizal.

The Gutierrezes live about 50 meters away from the house of city administrator Joel Miranda, son of incumbent Mayor Jose Miranda.

Their neighbors told police that the grenade throwers fled northward on board two motorcycles.

"Palagay ko pulitika and dahilan nito (I think politics is behind this incident)," said Gutierrez, who hosts the radio program Isyu Ngayon.

He said that two days before the attack, he got several phone calls telling him to stop making negative commentaries against a certain politician whom he refused to identify.

In September last year, two unidentified men peppered radio station dwSI with Armalite bullets while Gutierrez was hosting his morning commentary show.

The Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya press clubs have issued a joint manifesto condemning the attack. They called on authorities to identify and prosecute the perpetrators.