Zamboanga city: The local police have initiated a search operation to apprehend two gunmen on a motorcycle who shot and wounded a private university executive early Wednesday morning.

According to Philippines News Agency, Col. Fidel Fortaleza Jr., director of the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), reported that the victim, Alfredo Solis Eustaquio, aged 33, was shot at around 6:05 a.m. along Estrada Street, Barangay Tetuan. Eustaquio serves as the vice president of Unibersidad de Zamboanga (UZ), an institution founded in October 1948.

Fortaleza detailed that Eustaquio was en route to a fitness gym when two assailants on a motorcycle approached his vehicle and fired a shot at him before quickly fleeing the scene. Despite his injuries, Eustaquio managed to drive himself to Zamboanga Doctors Hospital, where he received immediate medical care and was later declared in stable condition by the attending physician.

This incident marks the second time a UZ executive has been targeted in such a manner. Eustaquio's uncle, former UZ president Arturo Eustaquio III, was fatally attacked by motorcycle-riding assailants on April 1, 2012, outside his residence on Maestra Vicenta Street, Santa Maria.