Complaint filed vs. ex-city councilor over attack on Laguna journalist

The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) said on Wednesday that a complaint for frustrated murder has been filed against a former city councilor in connection with the shooting incident involving a journalist.

According to PTFoMS, the complaint was filed against the principal suspect, who is also the son of a barangay chairman, before the San Pablo, Laguna Prosecutor’s Office on July 22 by the victim, Marc Angelo Barrios, a reporter for Laguna Patrol.

PTFoMS, however, declined to name the suspect pending the result of the evaluation of the complaint by the attending prosecutor.

Barrios was accompanied by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) during the filing of the complaint.

“We commend the CIDG under the able leadership of PM/Gen. Leo Francisco, for immediately responding to the task force’s request for a deeper probe of the incident,” PTFoMS executive director Paul Gutierrez said in a statement.

According to the police report, Barrios was riding a motorcycle on his way home in Barangay San Gregorio, San Pablo City, on July 15 when two suspects riding another motorcycle fired at him near the gate of a local subdivision.

PTFoMS had questioned the spot report, which deemed the incident a “threat and malicious mischief.” It also identified Barrios as a member of the “office staff” and not a journalist.

The Commission on Human Rights is also investigating the shooting incident. —VBL, GMA Integrated News