Radioman, son wounded in Surigao City gun attack

SURIGAO CITY—The 12-year-old son of radioman Saturnino Estanio Jr. is now in stable condition after the boy was caught in a crossfire during an attack on his father.

JV Estanio took a bullet near the left armpit when two unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen attacked his father outside their home in Barangay Rizal here.

The Estanio home is beside the national highway traversing a village.

A hospital source said the bullet barely missed the boy’s left lung.

Estanio, an anchorman for Radio Mindanao Network’s dxRS radio station here, said it was fortunate that the rest of his family was already inside the house when the gunmen attacked.

The broadcaster has three other children by his common-law wife.

Estanio, who presides over a nightly public affairs segment in dxRS, described the attackers as young, probably in their 20s. The assailants wore no masks, he said.

Estanio, who suffered minor gunshot wounds, drove 4 kilometers to the nearest hospital to get treatment for him and his son.

Police immediately conducted checks on motorcycles without license plates after Supt. Noel Silvoza, of the city police, noted that the getaway vehicle used by the assailants, a motorcycle, had no license plate.

Estanio said while the attack could be motivated by personal grudge, he was more inclined to believe that it was related to his work as a broadcaster, targeting him for his strong criticism of illegal gambling.

He recalled that three days before the attack, somebody had told him to go easy on illegal game machines proliferating in the city.

“I did not mind it thinking it wasn’t that serious,” he said of the threat.

Illegal game machines, locally known as “tolilong” (fruit games) and “video karera” (horse-racing), are said to earn as much as P200,000 per week in the city alone.

Police sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the illegal game machines had been operating with impunity because their financiers were enjoying the protection of scalawag policemen and local politicians.

A civil society group condemned the attack on Estanio and similar cases in the city.

The string of cases of violence in the city, “shows a deadly pattern of criminal impunity,” said Fernando Almeda Jr., head of the Coalition of Surigaonons for Good Governance, in a text message.

“Killers are on the loose in Surigao City like mad dogs,” he said.

“They are not afraid of the law and are, it is clear, taunting the police,” said Almeda. Danilo Adorador III, Inquirer Mindanao