Radio reporter found murdered in Agusan

MARAWI CITY — A radio reporter was found murdered in Agusan del Sur a day after another journalist was killed in Laguna two weeks ago, the regional police chief said.

Rico Ramirez, 32, a reporter of radio station dxSF-FM, an affiliate of Radyo Natin Mindanao, was found shot dead by the roadside in San Francisco town last Aug. 20, Chief Superintendent Alberto Olario, Caraga police director, said.

He did not say why the killing was announced only now.

Olario said probers still have no motive or suspects in the killing of Ramirez.

Journalists in Northern Mindanao expressed alarm over Ramirez’s murder and called on the police to solve it as soon as possible.

Herbie Gomez, Cagayan de Oro City coordinator of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, expressed fear that Ramirez would just be a statistic in the long list of unsolved killings of Filipino journalists.

Ramirez’s killing came just a day after Laguna broadcaster and community paper columnist Noel Villarante was shot dead, purportedly for criticizing corruption and illegal gambling.

Ramirez is also the fourth reporter known to have been killed in the Philippines this year.

Two others — human rights lawyer Ferdinand Reyes, an editor of the Dipolog City weekly Press Freedom, and Nesino Paulino Toling, publisher and editor of Ozamis City newspaper Panguil Bay Monitor — last Feb. 12 and April 14, respectively.

At least 40 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines since democracy was restored in 1986, international press bodies have said.

According to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a total of 54 Filipino journalists have been slain since 1961. Only three of these killings have been solved.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has said this makes the country one of the most perilous in the world for members of the media. — Ben Serrano, Bong Fabe and AFP