GENERAL SANTOS (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 6, 2012) – Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a newspaper publisher in an attack in the southern Filipino port city of General Santos, police said Friday.
It said Christopher Guarin, whose family runs the daily newspaper Tatak News, was shot repeatedly late Thursday. Guarin, who was in his 40s, was driving the family car with his wife and children when motorcycle gunmen attacked him.
Guarin was still able to run away from the car, but the attackers pursued him and finished him off. His family escaped and sought help from authorities.
Police said the victim was rushed to hospital, but doctors declared him dead.
His wife told police that Guarin had been receiving death threats from an unidentified people for a still unknown reason. No individual claimed responsibility for the murder.
Last year, gunmen also killed newspaper executive Alfred Velarde, 43, outside his office in General Santos City.
Velarde, circulations manager of the daily tabloid Brigade News, was shot repeatedly while inside his car. It was not immediately known whether the two killings were connected.
The Philippines was tagged as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said 79 were murdered during regime of President Gloria Arroyo and six more under the current presidency of Benigno Aquino 3rd, who was elected in 2010.
Guarin was the first journalist killed this year. (Mindanao Examiner)
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