Motorcycle-riding gunmen killed a 56-year-old journalist in Zamboanga City on Tuesday evening, October 22, while seated outside a store just a few meters from her home.
In an alert posted by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines(NUJP) on its Facebook page on Wednesday, October 23, officials identified the victim as Ma. Vilma Rodriguez of eMedia Productions.
Witnesses reported that Rodriguez sustained three gunshot wounds to her abdomen but displayed remarkable resilience by managing to walk back to her house to inform her daughter of the attack.
She was quickly rushed to the Zamboanga City Medical Center, where attending physicians declared her dead at 9:37 p.m.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Zamboanga City Chapter strongly condemned the violent attack, emphasizing the dangers faced by journalists in the region.
Rodriguez becomes the second female journalist to be killed in the area. The first was Gloria Martin, also known as Golondrina, who was reporting for DXXX Basilan when she was killed on December 30, 1992.
“We condemn this atrocious attack against a journalist and a woman at that,” NUJP Zamboanga City said.
“We are urging the Zamboanga City Police Office to probe deeper into this, unmask the killers and their masterminds, and put them behind bars. We don’t need a tale of another unsolved case that ended up as archives or statistics,” NUJP added.
Authorities have not yet identified the attackers or determined a motive for the killing. An investigation is currently underway. (TCSP)
