Incident

Bombo Radyo patrol driver shot dead

Cause of death

Shooting

Details

Unidentified gunmen shot dead an employee of a Koronadal City-based radio station in front of the South Cotabato Provincial hospital early Monday.

According to report, dxMC-Bombo Radyo Koronadal driver Rommel "Jojo" Palma, 31, who also did on-air reporting from time to time, had just ferried one of the reporters at the hospital and was about to park the pickup-type service vehicle past 5:00 am when two motorcycle-riding men shot him twice. One bullet hit his spine while another hit his neck. Doctors at the provincial hospital located just in front of Bombo Radyo station declared Palma dead at around 5:45 am.

Authorities identified the suspects as alias Bobot and alias Hagibis. Bombo Radyo-Koronadal station manager Hermie Legaspi said they are leaving it to the police to determine if the killing was due to a personal grudge or to his media work. Mario Neyra, the station’s chief technician, said they were not aware whether Palma had received any death threat prior to this morning’s incident.

But Legaspi said as per police blotter, Bobot and Hagibis reportedly went to Palma’s house on April 22 in barangay Concepcion, Koronadal city, to look for him. Since Palma was not around, one of the suspects told his family members, “Kinsay iyang gisaligan (Who is his protector?),” in reference to Palma. Although the suspects did not directly threatened to kill Palma, still Legaspi advised him to report the incident to the police. Aside from driving the Bombo Radyo service vehicle, Palma conducted live afternoon weather and area situation reports for the station. He was the second media worker to have been murdered in South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos City (Socsargen) area since January.

On January 5, two alleged hired assassins gunned down Tatak News publisher-editor Christopher Guarin while on his way home in Barangay Lagao. Guarin was with this wife and daughter when the incident happened. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 12 had filed murder charges against an alleged “gun-for-hire” identified as Marvin Palabrica in connection with Guarin’s killing. Palabrica has remained at large.

Source: National Union of Journalists of the Philippines