GUNMEN SHOT dead a radio announcer at dawn Friday in Guihulngan City in the central Philippine province of Negros Oriental, officials said.
Undersecretary Joel Egco, who is the executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), said the police are investigating the murder of Gabriel Alburo, of radio station dyWC-Radyo Bandilyo.
Egco has strongly condemned the killing. “The Presidential Task Force on Media Security is deeply saddened and strongly condemns, in no uncertain terms, the killing of Gabriel “Komander Aguila” Alburo, radio announcer of dyWC-Radyo Bandilyo,” he said.
Alburo, who was also running for city councilor in the May 2019 polls, had been shot repeatedly by 2 armed men while heading home on his motorbike.
The attackers, who were also on a motorcycle, tailed Alburo from a cockpit arena and shot him near North Poblacion village.
Egco, quoting a police report, said prior to the killing, Alburo had a heated argument with an unidentified betting rival as they reported to have placed their bets on the same side in a cockfighting match.
“The task force presumes that the incident is work-related until police investigators come up with their conclusive findings,” he said, adding, they will continue to monitor the progress of the investigation.
He said the Duterte government and the task force is committed in fulfilling its mandate “to keep media workers free from any and all forms of threats and violence that may be carried out against them.”
Media watchdog National Union of Journalist of the Philippines said Alburo is the second media practitioner murdered in Negros Oriental this year after Edmund Sestoso was also killed in Dumaguete on April 30.
“If proven to be work-related, his death brings to 13 the number of journalists killed since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in mid-2016 and 186 since 1986,” it said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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