Relative of Zamboanga City journalist arrested for her killing

EMedia Barangay Action Center 105.9-Zamboanga program anchor Maria Vilma Rodriguez —Photo courtesy of Kutangbato News

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — The Zamboanga City police arrested on Wednesday a suspect in the killing of journalist Maria Vilma Rodriguez.

Zamboanga City police director Col. Kimberly Molitas did not identify the suspect but said the man was a 33-year-old neighbor and relative of the victim.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the 56-year-old Rodriguez, a mother of four, was gunned down at past 8 p.m. on Tuesday, while sitting in a store with her mother, sister, and nephew.

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She sustained three gunshot wounds but managed to go home from where she was rushed to Zamboanga City Medical Center. However, she was declared dead at 9:37 p.m.

Rey Bayoging, an executive of independent media company EMedia, said Rodriguez was an anchor of 105.9 EMedia’s “Barangay Action Center” radio program. She had been with the company for about a year.

Barangay post

Bayoging added that Rodriguez was offered the program as she was already familiar with barangay issues, having been a barangay secretary in Tumaga village.

Her program was “not a hard-hitting one” although radio executives learned from one of Rodriguez’s children that their mother had a rift with a relative.

“Vilma informed her children that she was getting death threats, but she never informed us about this,” Bayoging said.

Rodriguez is the second woman journalist to be murdered in Zamboanga City. The first was Gloria Martin, also known as Golondrina, of dxXX Basilan, who was killed on Dec. 30, 1992.

The Zamboanga City police said the suspect was identified through the accounts of witnesses and later arrested by members of the Zamboanga City Police Station 7.

The police announced the suspect’s arrest as the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) extended its sympathies to Rodriguez’s bereaved family and friends.

The PCO, led by Secretary Cesar Chavez, also directed concerned government agencies to “provide the fullest support” to her family “in this difficult time.”

“We call upon the authorities to conduct a swift and impartial probe into this atrocious incident. No stone should be left unturned in the pursuit of those culpable,” the PCO said in a statement.

“These kinds of vile and atrocious acts have no place in our nation, which values freedom, democracy, and the rule of law above all,” it added.