Key PointsThe 57-year-old victim was broadcasting from his home.The suspect pretended to be someone who wanted to make an announcement on the victim’s radio show.Police were still determining a motive for the killing.
A radio broadcaster has been shot dead by an unidentified suspect while live on air in the southern Philippines.
The victim, Juan Jumalon, was broadcasting from his studio at his house in Calamba town in the southern province of Misamis Occidental, when the attack happened on Sunday.
The suspect pretended to be someone who wanted to make an announcement on the 57-year-old’s radio show, police said.
“Once inside, without apparent reason, (the suspect) drew his firearm and shot the victim, hitting his lower lip and piercing to the back of his head,” a police report said.
The suspect fled, while the victim was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
Police were still determining a motive for the killing. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr condemned the killing and ordered the police to “swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice”.
“Attacks on journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy, and those who threaten the freedom of the press will face the full consequences of their actions,” he said in a post on his official X account.
Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be killed under the Marcos Jr administration and the 199th since 1986, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) says.
“The attack is even more condemnable since it happened at Jumalon’s own home,” the NUJP said in a statement.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Philippines is one of the most dangerous places to work as a reporter, especially radio journalists.
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