Gunmen kill radio commentator, escape in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino radio commentator was shot about a dozen times as he was leaving for work Friday in a new fatal attack in a country with an alarming record of killings of journalists. The assailants escaped.

Joey Llana, 38, was manoeuvring his van near his home in Daraga town in northeastern Albay province when he was killed at dawn, Police Chief Superintendent Arnel Escobal said.

Officials said Llana had received unspecified death threats but the motive was still under investigation.

The International Federation of Journalists condemned Llana’s death, which the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said would be the 12th fatal media attack under President Rodrigo Duterte if it turns out to be work-related.

IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger called for immediate Philippine government action “to curb the culture of violence and impunity against the local media.” ”Philippines democracy is weakened every time a journalist is killed,” he said.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque also condemned the killing “as yet another infringement on the rights to life and a free press.”

In November 2009, 58 people, more than half of them media workers, were gunned down in an elections-linked massacre in southern Ampatuan town that was also the world’s worst single attack on journalists.