WEDNESDAY · JULY 25, 2007 · 04:10 PM
The National Police's Task Force USIG is preparing charges of frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms against the suspect in the shooting Wednesday of the station manager of GMA Radio Network in Bacolod City.
In a statement, TF USIG commander Director Geary Barias said the suspect, identified as Romeo Corgo, reportedly a deputized enforcer of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Bacolod City, is already undergoing investigation at the Sagay City Police Station in Negros Occidental.
Corgo was immediately arrested after he shot Ferdinand "Bambi" Yngson, 46, station manager of RGMA, at the Sagay City Public Market Wednesday morning.
Yngson sustained gunshot wounds from the "sumpak" or improvised shotgun used by Corgo. He is now being treated at a hospital in Bacolod City.
Barias is expected to proceed to Sagay City to personally assess and supervise the investigation, on orders of PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon. Calderon and other police officials were in Iloilo City when the shooting incident happened.
Barias, who is concurrently the Director for Investigation and Detective Management, said he is not discounting the possibility of personal grudge as motive for the crime, as well as all other angles.
Barias noted that Yngson had been critical of alleged anomalies involving the suspect at the local LTO branch in Bacolod City prior to the shooting.
The TF USIG was created in May last year by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to address killings of militants and journalists in the country, which have spurred since 2001 when she rose to power.
The task force has taken cognizance of 27 cases of journalists' killings since that time, 21 of which have already been filed in court.
