Category: Media

“Two journalists slain in five days; four killed in 2004,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines reports in a statement.

Last Saturday, Roger Mariano, a DZJC-Akyson radio anchor in Laoag was shot dead while on his way home. Yesterday, Arnel Manalo, Batangas correspondent of Bulgar tabloid and the radio station DZRH, suffered the same fate.

“The one factor visibly missing in the Philippines is public indignation widespread and compelling enough to make it politically advantageous for the Philippine government to rigorously go after the killers,” writes Philippine Journalism Review editor Luis Teodoro.

Another media practitioner was killed Thursday last week. The victim was Radyo Natin broadcaster Eliseo “Ely” Binoya of General Santos City.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJP), strongly condemned the killing. “Perhaps because the perpetrators have been able to get away with it, the attacks against journalists continue,” it said in a statement.

NUJP also listed a series of attacks on journalists this year:

• February 11 – Ruel Endrinal of DZRC in Legazpi City was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen.
• February 13 – Modesto Gutierrez, a radio commentator of DWSI in Santiago City, Isabela, survived a grenade attack.
• June 8 – Cirse “Choy” Torralba of Angel Radio in Cebu City was injured in an ambush.