JANUARY 29, 2005
Posted: February 4, 2005
Maximo “Max” Quindao, Mindanao Truck
ATTACKED
Gunmen shot Quindao, publisher and editor of the weekly newspaper Mindanao Truck, four times in the chest as he left his office in Mindanao’s Tagum City, leaving the journalist severely injured.
Police said that two men on a motorcycle fled after shooting Quindao, 46, just after 9 a.m., according to local and international news reports. Quindao was rushed to Tagum Doctors Hospital and later transferred to Davao Regional Hospital for emergency surgery.
Police did not immediately establish a motive but were investigating the possibility of a personal grudge. Philippine National Police Chief Edgar Aglipay said in a radio interview that police had received information that Quindao was no longer an active journalist, according to Manila Standard.
That assertion, though, was at odds with other public comments, including news reports that quoted Quindao’s wife as saying that the shooting might have been in retaliation for her husband’s recent columns criticizing a high-ranking public official.
The local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Quindao’s weekly columns criticized poor government services and drew attention to local corruption and illegal logging. Colleagues told NUJP and local reporters that they believed the shooting was work-related.