Columnist shot dead in Ilocos Norte

CMFR/ Philippines – A columnist for a local weekly newspaper was shot dead in a public market in Ilocos Norte on 4 September 2015. Ilocos Norte is 397 kilometers north of Manila.

Ilocos Times columnist and businessman Steve Barriero was shot several times in front of a grocery store in Laoag, Ilocos Norte. Barriero died on the spot.

Barriero’s daughter, who witnessed the incident, identified the gunman as a certain Oliver Doctor. Doctor fled to an unknown direction aboard a motorcycle after the incident.

The police are looking into a possible love triangle in this case as the reason for the shooting. Barreiro, a widower, was reportedly living with Doctor’s former wife.

CMFR reported in 2009 that Barriero had survived a grenade attack. Barreiro told CMFR that he was about to enter his home when a grenade exploded in an earthen jar some two meters away. He said then that the attack might have been related to a column he had written in the Ilocos Times. Bareiro was not hurt in the incident.

Barriero is the eighth journalist killed this year. Three of the cases were work related—Bagting (Ring) sa Katilingban (masses) reporter and president of the Davao del Norte Press and Radio-TV Club Gregorio “Loloy” Ybañez was attacked last August 18 and died the next day. DzMS-AM Sorsogon blocktimer Teodoro “Tio Todoy” Escanilla was also killed on August 19; and dxOC broadcaster Cosme Maestrado was killed August 27.