Dagupan City's Radio Man Seeks NBI Help in Shooting probe

PANGASINAN RADIO MAN. At a media briefing in Manila on Thursday,
September 11, Provincial Press Clubs of the Philippines
 president Allan Sison (left) and lawyer Ferdinand
opacio (right) examine the gunshot scar of Dagupan City
broadcaster Orly Navarro, who was shot by an unidentified
 assailant on August 26. Navarro is asking the DOJ
to conduct a thorough investigation on the matter. Danny Pata

A radio commentator who survived an ambush in Dagupan, Pangasinan, has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help in probing the incident.

In a letter submitted to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday, Orlando Navarro, a radio commentator and OIC station manager of dwIZ radio in Pangasinan, asked that the NBI be allowed to help the Philippine National Police in the investigation.

Navarro was shot by an unidentified gunman in the early hours of August 26 near his home in Dagupan City.

"May I request you good office to extend full assistance to Dagupan City PNP to conduct a thorough investigation and to expedite the solution of my case," read Navaro's handwritten letter to De Lima.

The NBI is the investigating arm of the DOJ.


Throwing its support to the expedient resolution of the shooting incident was the Federation of Provincial Press Clubs of the Philippines Inc.

"In view of the unabated killing and shooting of mediamen in the countryside which scandalize and threaten press freedom in our country, we hope you good offices stand by our cause and for justice to triumph," said FPPCP national president Ronald Allan Sison.

The Pangasinan police arrested Rolando Lim Jr., a.k.a. Ronnie/Oning, hours after the shooting of Navarro. Lawmen claimed the suspect was linked to illegal drug activities in Dagupan City.

The PNP said it filed a case of frustrated murder against Lim before the City Prosecutor's Office Wednesday.

Lim denied participation in the crime, according to a report by GMA Dagupan earlier.

In an affidavit he executed last Monday, Navarro said right after the shooting, he immediately asked his daughter to put on record in his cellphone the names of the people "who has the intention to commit the crime." —Mark Merueñas/KBK, GMA News