A RADIO broadcaster from Dumaguete City died on Tuesday, Labor Day, a day after he was shot by unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines confirmed that Edmund Sestoso, host of the program Tug-anan on dyGB Power 91, died in the afternoon of May 1.
The gunmen attacked Sestoso in the morning of April 30 while he was on his way home after work.
The motive for the attack has yet to be determined, but Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Remollo called on the authorities to “go the extra mile” to ensure that perpetrators were “identified, tried and meted with the appropriate penalty.”
Sestoso, a former Dumaguete City chapter chairman of the NUJP, is the ninth journalist to be murdered during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the group said.
His death came two days before World Press Freedom Day.
“[The attack] underscores how deeply the culture of impunity has rooted itself in our country, emboldening those who wish to silence not only the press but to control civic discourse in general by stamping out critical and dissenting voices,” the NUJP said in a statement.
Dumaguete City’s press club condemned the attack and expressed fear that others could also be at risk.
“This is an affront to press freedom that everybody, not just members of the fourth estate, should be worried about because of its implications,” Dumaguete Press Club president Juancho Gallarde said in a statement.
“If we are silenced, who will take the cudgels of bringing to the fore the ills in government?”
Human Rights Watch said Sestoso’s death showed the continuing culture of impunity “that has forced journalists, especially in the provinces, to work and live in a climate of fear.”
“The Duterte administration may not like a free press very much, but it has the duty and responsibility to arrest and prosecute the killers of Sestoso and the many others who were murdered over the years,” said Carlos Conde of HRW Asia Division said.
The Philippines was tagged by Reporters Without Borders as “Asia’s deadliest country for media” after four journalists were killed in the country in 2017.
In the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, the Philippines slid six spots to rank 133rd out of 180 countries.