N. Ecija broadcaster slain in front of wife
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11th journalist killed this year
CABANATUAN CITY (Dec. 9) — A broadcaster and former newspaper columnist in Nueva Ecija was shot and killed by two men while visiting his farm in Barangay Sta. Arcadia, Cabanatuan City on December 7.
Police said Ponciano Grande, 53, died instantly from five bullet wounds, reported INQ7.net. His death brings to 11 the number of journalists killed this year; and to 47 the number of journalists killed since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed presidency in 2001.
Grande, a member of the Nueva Ecija Press Club, used to write a column for the local weeklies The Recorder and Nueva Ecija Times. His colleagues said Grande stopped writing columns in 2002. Other sources told NUJP that Grande and his wife, Annie Liwag-Grande, were hosting a radio program on DwJJ at the time of his death.
Grande’s wife was reportedly several meters from him when gunmen attacked.
Liwag-Grande said she left her husband in front of their vehicle along a road in Sitio Romantico to visit some neighbors there. A few minutes later, she heard gunshots and discovered her husband’s body.
She said the gunmen, who were armed with a .45 cal. pistol, chased her but they did not harm her. She told policemen that the gunmen appeared to be in their teens. # < strong>NUJP-Media Safety Office via NORDIS
