KIDAPAWAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 11, 2011) – An unidentified gunman shot dead a newspaper executive in an attack early Friday in General Santos City in the southern Philippines, police said.
Police said Alfredo Velarde, the circulations manager of the daily tabloid Brigade News, was killed outside his office shortly before 4 a.m. The assailant escaped on a motorcycle with another man after the shooting.
The motive of the attack is still unknown and no individual or group claimed responsibility for the murder.
Just recently, a radio broadcaster, Cosme Maestrado, of dxOC, survived a slay attempt in Ozamis City. Maestrado, who was in traveling in a vehicle, exchanged gunfire with two gunmen.
The Philippines was once 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, who was elected in 2010. (Mindanao Examiner)
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