Radioman suspects town dad involved in shooting

DAGUPAN CITY — A commentator of dzRH Dagupan whose service vehicle was shot at in Lingayen town last Thursday said he suspects that a municipal councilor might be involved in the incident.

Allan Sison, 37, operations and production manager of dzRH Dagupan, said the official, whom he described as a professional shooter, had an ax to grind against him because of his commentaries.

Sison was inside a Lingayen hotel as one of the sponsors in a wedding when his service vehicle was shot at, the bullet hitting the driver’s window and piercing through the other front seat door.

He earlier said the wedding guests were streaming out of the hotel when the shooting happened. He claimed seeing the councilor during the wedding.

The provincial police and the National Bureau of Investigation are conducting parallel investigations into the shooting which Pangasinan media groups have condemned.

The Pangasinan Tri-Media Association Inc., led by Roland Hidalgo of radio station dwPR, viewed the incident with deep concern, saying it signals the first stirrings of a culture of violence against local media practitioners.

"Whether or not the bullet fired at the radio station’s vehicle was meant to just scare commentator Allan Sison, or to totally do away with him, the act, by any language, is a direct assault on the media institution and needs the prompt response of government investigative agencies insofar as unmasking the perpetrator or perpetrators," the group said in a statement.

The group added: "Anything less by a way of a thorough and efficient action, the sinister enemies of free expression will be emboldened to sound the death knell for democratic expression and provide yet another proof to the international impression that the country, indeed, has become the most dangerous place on God’s Earth today for that species called the working journalist."

To those hurt by media criticisms, the group said bullets are not the answer. "When chastised, despised or unduly prejudiced by the press, there is nothing like, as some memorable court decisions poetically put it, ‘the balm of a clear conscience to assuage the hurt,’" it added.

Sison earlier admitted having received threatening calls and text messages.