“To silence a journalist is to deny the people their right to truth. We will not allow fear to win.”

CAGAYAN DE ORO – After the killing of veteran journalist Juan “Johnny” Dayang and former journalist Ali Macalintal early this year, a broadcaster in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur, was gunned down on July 21. A group of journalists said that his murder reflects the “longstanding climate of impunity” in Philippine journalism.

Media organizations denounced the brutal killing of the 63-year-old Erwin “Boy Pana” Segovia, a radio journalist. At the time of his death, he was the host of the morning public affairs program Diritsahan of Barangay Radio FM, which analyzes issues faced by local communities.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Surigao del Sur Chapter urged concerned government agencies like the Philippine National Police, Department of Justice, and the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) to launch a thorough investigation and hold perpetrators and the mastermind accountable.

“To silence a journalist is to deny the people their right to truth. We will not allow fear to win,” NUJP Surigao del Sur Chapter said in a statement.

Read: ‘Recent journalist killings raise fears that climate of impunity may endure under Marcos Jr.’

Initial police findings showed that Segovia was on his way home on board his motorcycle after his morning radio program when he was followed by two people on another motorcycle who shot him. The broadcaster sustained gunshot wounds in the head. The Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Segovia has already been activated by the authorities to look into the case.

Prior to the killing, Segovia tackled in his radio program the situation in public elementary schools in the city and the concerns of a certain group of tricycle drivers who opposed the implementation of the local public route which they believe could affect their daily income.

Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed condemnation of the killing of the Bislig-based broadcaster, stressing that his murder case “must not go unpunished.”

“We also call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to take the strongest measures to definitively end the culture of violence against journalists in his country, and to the sense of impunity that only encourages criminals to target the press,” RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Cédric Alviani said in a statement.

According to the 2024 Global Impunity Index of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Philippines placed ninth in the top countries with unresolved media killings. With 18 unresolved cases based on the same report, the country has been on the global impunity index since it started in 2008.

NUJP’s National Directorate called on Congress and the Marcos Jr. administration to prioritize long-overdue measures needed for the safety and welfare of journalists.

If proven to be work-related, Segovia will be the fifth journalist killed under the Marcos Jr. presidency. (DAA)