Female tabloid reporter slain in latest case of media killing

BALANGA CITY—A female reporter of the tabloid Abante in Bataan province was shot and killed by one of two men near her house in Barangay (village) Tuyo here on Thursday, police said.

Nerlita Ledesma, 47, was waiting for a ride to the Bataan provincial capitol, where she was also a casual employee at the provincial public information office, when the gunman, armed with a .45-cal. pistol, alighted from a motorcycle and shot her around 8 a.m.

Police said Ledesma died instantly from four bullet wounds in the chest.

Police have yet to identify the suspects or establish any motive in the attack, saying people who witnessed the attack refused to talk to investigators.

This was the second attack on Ledesma after her house in Sitio San Rafael was strafed by unidentified men two years ago. No one was hurt in that attack.

Ledesma was president of Tagnay Homeowners’ Association in Barangay Tuyo, where about 200 people have been living for years.

Upon her assumption as president of the association four years ago, Ledesma sought the legalization of her group’s land ownership through the National Housing Authority (NHA) in coordination with Leonardo David, the landowner, according to police.

David said the homeowners’ association had been accredited by the NHA through the efforts of Ledesma.

Ledesma is survived by her husband, Esteban, and their only daughter, Pamela Grace, 18, a sophomore at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños town in Laguna province.

In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that if proven to be work-related, the killing of Ledesma would bring the number of journalists murdered in the Philippines to 172 since 1986 and 31 under the administration of President Aquino.

If Ledesma was murdered because of her work as a journalist, she would be the 12th media worker killed in Central Luzon since 1986, based on the database of Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).

CMFR said that of the 217 media workers murdered since 1986, 145 were killed because of their work.

Among the media workers killed in Central Luzon were Dionisio Perpetuo Joaquin (Olongapo-Zambales News Forum, 1987), Ruben Manrique (Luzon Tribune, 1988, Balanga City), Romeo Andrada Legaspi (Voice of Zambales, 1993), Vincent Rodriguez (dzMM, 2000, Pampanga), Bonifacio Gregorio (Dyaryo Banat, 2003, Tarlac City), Romeo Binungcal (Remate, 2004, Bataan), Philip Agustin (Starline Times Recorder, 2005, Aurora), Orlando Mendoza (Tarlac Profile, 2006), Carmelo Mark Palacios (dzRB, 2007, Nueva Ecija), Marcos Mataro (UNTV, 2008, Pampanga) and Julius Caesar Cauzo (dwJJ, 2012, Nueva Ecija). Reports from Greg Refraccion and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon