A Shooting Encounter

 

After finishing college, my brother Joey joined his older brother Chito in Davao City  where they both worked in Radio Station DXMF, popularly known as Radyo Bombo.  Chito was assigned in radio patrol roaming the city streets  reporting the news as they saw it happened. Joey, on the other hand, worked as anchorman doing news analysis and broadcast commentaries.  

As I wrote about that era in another piece titled Too Young To Die, “… in the mid 80’s, Davao was a city in turmoil. The entire city became the battleground of a typical urban guerrilla warfare like what you see on TV in other parts of the world. There was a semblance of normalcy during the day. By dusk, commercial establishments were already closed. At night, under cover of darkness, armed communist forces roamed the streets ready to eliminate any perceived enemies. The government forces returned in kind. Dozens of killings perpetrated by both sides happened during the night while some occurred even in broad daylight.”

In an effort to solve the worsening peace-and-order problem, “Lt. Col. Franco Calida, head of the military’s Metropolitan District Command (Metrodiscom), organized the Alsa Masa (literally, “People’s Uprising” against the communists). My brothers Chito and Joey, together with radiomen Jun Pala of DXOW and Leo Palo of DXRA were very much involved in this undertaking from the time of its inception. While Calida was directing the military operations, the Alsa Masa members became the eyes and ears of the military pinpointing and reporting the locations and hideouts of the communists. The four radiomen were the mouthpiece of incessant psychological propaganda on the airwaves exposing the communists’ atrocities. Their involvement was not without peril.”

 

 On 17 January 1987, a 4-man team Sparrow Unit, the notorious hit squad of the communist New People’s Army barged into the announcer’s booth of Radyo Bombo where Joey was broadcasting. They strafed the announcer’s booth with bullets and lobbed a fragmentation grenade before leaving the place. Joey was badly wounded but survived the attack. I wrote about this incident with more details, in another piece titled My Brothers And A Grenade Explosion.

 

As a social experiment, the Alsa Masa Movement was a stunning success. When Rodrigo Duterte became mayor, the communists have practically vanished in the city.  But Joey’s life as a radioman continued to be in danger not by the communists this time but by some politically powerful people who were at the receiving end of Joey’s harsh commentaries and criticisms. As a precaution, Mayor Duterte assigned one of his security details to act as Joey’s personal bodyguard. His name is Pfc Roberto Gucila, an army man.

 

On May 18, 1990, Gucila’s commanding officer, Major Mario Monsanto, together with his deputy, Lt. Adrian Seivert arrived from SouthCom headquarters in Zamboanga. As such Pfc. Gucila accompanied them to the mayor’s office to pay a courtesy call. But the mayor was out of the country at that time and the military guests were entertained by the mayor’s Private Secretary, Mr. Cesar Damaso and the mayor’s technical Assistant, Mr. Henry Adriano. That evening, they treated the guests to a dinner in a restaurant located at the ground floor of Hotel Maguindanao which is owned by the family of City Councilor Cesar “Abog” Robillo. They also invited Joey, who was still broadcasting at that time to join them later. Unknown to Joey, Councilor Robillo was one of those people who were offended and got irked by Joey’s fearless commentaries and bore some grudges against him.

 

When Joey arrived at the restaurant to join the military guests, Robillo was seating in one of the adjacent tables drinking with his security guards. He was unhappy to see Joey enter the restaurant and ordered one of his guards to physically remove Joey from the premises of the hotel which he owned. But a restaurant is a public place and every customer has the right to be there as long as he is not breaking any law.

 

When the guards failed to remove Joey out because he was in the company of the military men, the visibly drunk Robillo approached and poured beer over Joey’s head. Joey responded by punching Robillo in the face. Everyone was shocked by the unexpected turn of events. Instantly,  Mr. Adriano and Mr. Damaso intervened trying to pacify Robillo. When things calmed down a bit, Robillo’s guards succeeded in escorting him away from Joey’s group and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But in just a couple of seconds, Robillo rushed back with a gun, pointing the same at Joey and shot him in the midsection of his body.  A melee ensued and gunshots were heard from different directions. When the smoke cleared,  Joey was slumped on the table bleeding while Robillo was sprawled on the floor. 

 

The military men rushed Joey to Davao Doctors’ Hospital where the doctors performed surgical operations right away. The guards also brought Robillo to the same hospital but was declared dead on arrival.