Three journalists murdered in the Philippines
Three journalists were murdered in the Philippines within 48 hours last week. Photographer Mario Sy was shot dead in front of his wife and daughter on Thursday (1 August) at his home in the city of General Santos.
Sy, a freelancer, worked for several publications, including the local tabloid Sapol News Bulletin. The killer's motive remains unclear, but Sapol publisher John Paul Jubelag speculated that Sy's murder could have been related to his contribution to a report on drug trafficking earlier in the year.
Two days before, Bonifacio Loreto Jr, the former publisher of the defunct Aksyon Ngayon newspaper, and its former executive editor, Richard Kho, were gunned down in Quezon City on the island of Luzon.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Loreto and Kho had been critical of a number of politicians in their columns in Aksyon Ngayon, which published just one issue earlier this year before folding.
All three leading press freedom watchdogs - Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Press Institute (IPI) and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) - have condemned the killings.
IPI's director of communications, Anthony Mills. said: "This marks an extremely sad week for journalists in the Philippines… We urge the Philippine government to make every effort to find their killers. Every time that a journalist's murderer goes unpunished, it fuels the further killing of journalists."
CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative, Shawn Crispin, said: "Time and again, Philippine journalists are killed, circumstances remain a mystery, and the killers go unpunished.
"Until President Benigno Aquino's government takes serious action to address his country's impunity problem, the killings of journalists will continue."
On 2 June, Miguelito "Mike" Rueras, a reporter for the radio station dyDD El-Nuevo Bantay Radyo, based in Cebu City in the central island province of Masbate, was shot dead.
On 22 April, radio journalist Mario Vendiola Bayliss was killed by two gunmen in the town of Kabasalan in the southern province of Zamboanga Sibugay. No one has been convicted.
On 2 July, Jaime G. Aquino, publisher of the Northern Star newspaper, was seriously wounded when three men fired at him in Pangasinan province. The police arrested two suspects the following day and attributed the shooting to a personal dispute.
At least 73 Filipino journalists have been killed in direct connection to their work since 1992, making the Philippines the second deadliest country in the world for the press, according to CPJ research. At least 55 journalist murders in the past decade have been unresolved.
Sources: RSF/IPI/CPJ
