Radio reporter survives shooting incident

CMFR/Philippines – Two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle ambushed and wounded a broadcaster of a radio station in Iloilo City on 10 December 2013.

Iloilo City in the Visayas island group is approximately 600 kilometers south of Manila.

Two unidentified men shot Jonavin “Jhey-r” Villalba, a reporter for dyOK Aksyon Radyo Iloilo at around 11 p.m., Tuesday, outside the reporter’s house in Jaro district. Villalba obtained wounds on his left toe and his right ankle from the shooting.

A report on the station website said that the incident happened when Villalba was about to enter his home after work. The reporter was opening the gate of his house when the two men fired at him.

The reporter was rushed to a local hospital while Aksyon Radyo called the police who responded 30 minutes after the incident.

Iloilo Police Provincial Office Director Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas ordered the police to erect checkpoints in all of the surrounding municipalities to seize the suspects.  No one has been arrested.

Nine empty shells and three deformed slugs of a nine millimeter caliber pistol were recovered in the vicinity of the shooting.

Police told CMFR that Villalba had noticed a suspicious man around the vicinity of his house days before the shooting happen. The police are still investigating the incident.

Some TV news reports said that the broadcaster’s family believed that the shooting was connected with recent commentaries aired by the reporter’s station.