(CMFR/IFEX) – An armed group ambushed the car of a radio commentator with the GV-FM radio station in Angeles City (about 100 kilometers from Manila), Pampanga province, on the morning of 26 June 2000. Three people were killed and two others were injured in the attack. Roy David, a former mayor of the town of […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – An armed group ambushed the car of a radio commentator with the GV-FM radio station in Angeles City (about 100 kilometers from Manila), Pampanga province, on the morning of 26 June 2000. Three people were killed and two others were injured in the attack.
Roy David, a former mayor of the town of Porac (also in Pampanga province), co-hosts the radio programme “Pulitika At Iba Pa” (“Politics and others”). He had just come from the regular airing of the programme when the attack occurred. David was able to shoot back at his attackers, but was seriously wounded.
Ody Fabian and Bong Lacson, associate publisher and senior contributing editor of the “The Voice” newspaper, respectively, and David’s radio co-hosts, were in the radio station building when the attack took place. They remained there until the shooting stopped. Colleagues advised them to seek police protection until an investigation determines that they were not targets of the ambush as well. Pampanga journalists have prepared a manifesto condemning the attack. The Pampanga Press Club has also condemned the death threats that Fabian has been receiving since the incident.
Background Information
David, Fabian and Lacson had recently been criticising alleged “jueteng” lord Bong Pineda and Pampanga Governor Lito Lapid on their radio programme and in “The Voice”. “Jueteng” is an illegal numbers game rampant in Pampanga and other Philippine provinces, where it flourishes under the protection of police and local officials. Police have not been able to prove Pineda’s connection with another ambush in the same province – a 23 May attack in which Vincent Rodriguez was killed. Rodriguez was a Pampanga correspondent with the Manila-based DZMM radio station (see IFEX alert of 9 June 2000).
David was mayor of Porac for twelve years. He is said to have been responsible for Lapid’s landslide victory in 1995 elections. David was Lapid’s chief political advisor during his first term as governor. He ran for congress in 1998 and lost. Pineda and Lapid supported the incumbent representative, allegedly a Pineda protégé.
