ARAYAT, Pampanga – A columinist-reporter of the tabloid Remate and his companion were killed when they were ambushed along a highway in Barangay Cacutud here at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
A report from Arayat police chief Lt. Col. Dale Soliba identifi ed the victims as Jupiter Gonzalez, 52, a reporter of Remate tabloid, and one Christopher Tiongson, who were on board a Nissan Almera car with plate no. AQA8441 when they were fired at by still unidentified suspects.
Gonzalez was driving the car with his companion on the front seat when the ambush happened on the Olongapo-Gapan Road in Cacutud on their way to Subic, Zambales. Their car crashed into a flower box alongside the road, even as their killers fled in an unknown vehicle.
The report said residents in the area found Tiongson apparently already lifeless, while Gonzalez was still breathing despite bullet wounds in their heads. Both, however, were declared dead at the Arayat district hospital.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) came out with a statement on the case, saying it was “deeply saddened and condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of Jupiter Gonzales.”
Undersecretary Jose Joel Sy Egco, Executive Director of the PTFoMS, said he “immediately coordinated with the police operatives in Arayat to speed-up the investigation” and that he himself would lead a team of PTFoMS investigators.
Egco also writes a column in Remate newspaper.
Egco arrived at the Arayat police station before noon yesterday, along with police Lt. Col. Eder Collantes and retired police Lt. Col. Rechie Duldulao, PTFoMS investigation chief and deputy, respectively.
Egco noted that Gonzales also wrote a column for Remate and “was known for being a staunch critic of illegal gambling proliferating in local carnivals, or peryahan or pergalan in street parlance.”
“The PTFoMS presumes any form of media violence as work-related, until further investigation proves otherwise. The task force is on top of the situation and is closely coordinating with the authorities regarding this incident and follow- up investigations are being closely monitored,” Egco said in a statement.
Soliba said a local suspect is being monitored amid reports that the victims had engaged in a heated argument with him somewhere in Cacutud before the ambush.
