Gun-for-hire gang eyed in GenSan attack

KORONADAL CITY — Speculations are rife that a gun-for-hire syndicate operating in Central Mindanao could be behind last Tuesday’s shooting of a correspondent and marketing executive of the General Santos City community paper Mindanao Bulletin.

The victim, Danilo Aguirre, was shot with a caliber .45 pistol by a man wearing a helmet at about 8:15 a.m. while he was on his way back to the Mindanao Bulletin office after buying shampoo from a nearby convenience store.

At press time, Aguirre, 25, was still under observation in a General Santos City hospital. A co-worker, Emmanuel Zaldivar, who was with him during the incident, was unharmed.

Jeffrey Jubelag, news editor of Mindanao Bulletin, said the gunman casually walked to a parked motorcycle after the shooting.

Jubelag believes that the gunman belongs to a gun-for-hire group. City councilor Eduardo Leyson said he has received unvalidated reports that hired killers have entered the city.

But Senior Superintendent Alfredo Toroctocon, General Santos City police chief, said the involvement of a gun-for-hire group in the shooting was remote.

"Aguirre’s case is more on personal grudge. It is not work-related," he said.

The publishers of all weekly newspapers in the Socksargen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos) area condemned the attack.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the recent attack against Danilo Aguirre," said STAR correspondent John Paul Jubelag, president of the Publishers Association in General Santos City (PAGES).