News reporter shot dead in Zamboanga City
COTABATO CITY — A gunman shot dead a 56-year-old female radio news reporter in an attack in Barangay Tumaga in Zamboanga City on Tuesday night.
In separate reports released Wednesday, the Zamboanga City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-9 stated that Maria Vilma L. Rodriguez was shot thrice with .38 caliber revolver by an attacker while seated close to the store of her mother along Comet Street in Barangay Tumaga, killing her instantly.
The killer of Ms. Rodriguez managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the area. She was declared dead on arrival by doctors in a hospital where she was brought by emergency responders for treatment.
The victim, a single mother who has four children, was a host of the Barangay Action Center program of the 105.9 E-Media radio in Zamboanga City that also has a social media online news platform.
She had worked as a volunteer reporter of a Brigada radio station in Zamboanga City before she joined the E-Media broadcast and online news entity, according to reporters covering the Police Regional Office-9 and the military’s Western Mindanao Command.
Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey M. Masauding, director of PRO-9, told reporters on Wednesday that their intelligence units and barangay officials in Tumaga are together trying to identify her killer for prosecution. — John Felix M. Unson
