MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 04 Jul) – Police mounted a manhunt for the killers of a broadcaster who was shot in the central Philippine province of Cebu.
Geruncio Mondejar was shot and wounded on June 30 in Mandaue City and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the province, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said.
Mondejar, a commentator with the radio station dyRB, was waiting for a ride when two motorcycle gunmen shot him at close range.
The local media watch dog, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, condemned the killing, despite President Gloria Arroyo’s creation of a task force that will investigate murders of journalists in the country.
"Not a hundred 'Presidential Task Force Against Media Harassment' can stop attacks on journalists," the NUJP said.
Mondejar is the fifth journalist killed in 2007.
Last month, gunmen also killed a radio broadcaster Vicente Sumalpong and wounded another journalist Vema Andam, of the state-owned Radyo ng Bayan, in Tawi-Tawi province in southern Philippines.
More than five dozen journalists have been killed in line of duty since 1986 after the fall of the dictator President Ferdinand Marcos.
The killings are part of a culture of impunity in which political assassins and the killers of journalists are seldom punished, the CMFR said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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