Filipino radio journalist Maria Vilma Rodriguez was shot dead by unknown assailants near her home in home in Zamboanga City on the southern island of Mindanao on October 22.
Rodriguez, 56, used to present 105.9 Emedia FM’s news program Barangay Action Center. She is the fifth journalist to be killed in the country since Ferdinand Marcos Jr became its president in June 2022.
It takes to 200 the wider tally of journalists killed in the country since democracy was restored in 1986, according to data from the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
Police arrested a suspect on Wednesday, said Zamboanga City police official Kimberly Molitas, but declined to identify the individual. Police were looking at a family feud as a potential motive, she added.
NUJP Zamboanga City said: “We condemn this atrocious attack against a journalist and a woman at that. We are urging the Zamboanga City Police Office to probe deeper into this, unmask the killers and their masterminds, and put them behind bars. We don’t need a tale of another unsolved case that ended up as archives or statistics.”
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “The IFJ strongly condemns the killing of journalist Maria Vilma Rodriguez. The Marcos Jr. Government must do more to ensure the safety of Filipino journalists and media workers. The Federation urges Philippine authorities to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into her murder, determine the motive behind the attack, and hold those responsible to account.”
“These kinds of vile and atrocious acts have no place in our nation, which values freedom, democracy, and the rule of law above all,” the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement, describing the attack as barbaric and calling upon the authorities to conduct a swift and impartial probe into the incident.
“The killing of radio reporter Maria Vilma Rodriguez shows that the murderers of journalists remain undeterred in the Philippines,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Until President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s government firmly moves to end impunity, these heinous crimes against the press will continue.”
The Philippines ranked eighth on CPJ’s most recent Impunity Index, a global ranking of countries where journalists’ murderers are most likely to go free.
This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia