IMUS, Cavite — Media groups are seeking justice for the shooting of Domingo M. Valdecantos Jr., a Cavite-based correspondent, near his home in DSM Subdivision, Mambog I, Bacoor City, on Wednesday morning.
The 45-year-old Valdecantos, fondly called by colleagues and friends as “Jun” or “Valde,” is still under observation Thursday at the operating room of Medical Center Imus (MCI) here. He suffered back wounds inflicted by two .45-caliber bullets fired by one of two still unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen.
The attack was staged near an eatery just adjacent to the house of Valdecantos.
Police Officer III Angelito A. Roxas, case investigator, said that two men, wearing helmets and jackets, fired at Valdecantos twice as he was walking along Diamond Street.
The shooting came after Valdecantos had just brought his nine-year-old son Mark Joshua at King James Academy, a relative said.
Valdecantos is a correspondent based in Cavite who writes for national and local tabloids.
Eric M. Valdecantos, a brother of the newsman, said the victim could hardly talk but was told by doctors he was recuperating well since being rushed to the hospital.
The National Press Club (NPC), the National Union Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and Cavite media members have condemned the attack as another affront to the fourth estate and called on the authorities to act with dispatch in resolving the incident by arresting the suspects and putting them behind bars.
Valdecantos, an NPC member, joined the long list of journalists who were either shot fatally or wounded and intimidated or harassed in the metropolis and the countryside through the years.
As of yesterday, the Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO), Criminal Investigation and Detection Team (CIDT) and the Bacoor Police Station are still a facing blank wall as to the identities of the assailants and others who might have a hand in the attack.
Although the police have yet to name a suspect, NPC President Benny Antiporda said he believed the attack had something to do with politics and the upcoming elections, citing that Valdecantos has been critical to some powerful people in the province.
Antiporda tagged Valdecantos as the first victim of violence among mediamen in the 2013 mid-term election period. He called on President Benigno S. Aquino III to look into the incident.
Cavite is one of the 15 provinces tagged as election “areas of concern” or “hotspots” by Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II, considering the intense provincial political rivalries and the incidents in past election years in the area.