A radio commentator in Cebu, Philippines was shot at by unidentified gunmen on Thursday.
Rico Osmeña, a blocktimer of radio station dyLA, was riding a minibus when the suspects, who were riding a motorcycle, attacked him.
“Based on what our investigation team has gathered from witnesses, there were two men, riding a motorcycle. The jeep was about to make a left turn from Urdaneta Street to M.J. Cuenco Avenue. Then the gunman fired his gun,” said Police Major Edgar Labe, chief of Waterfront Police Station, in Cebuano.
Osmeña sustained gunshot wounds on his shoulder and was rushed to a hospital
Police are looking into the motive of the attack, whether it was work related or due to a personal grudge.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines noted that Osmeña has been making commentary on hot issues such as politics and smuggling.
Last July, dyRB commentator Renante Cortes was shot dead in front of the radio station, also in Cebu City.
The shooting comes a month and a half after Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy, a radio journalist, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman inside his home in Bansalan town, Davao del Sur, in October.
The Philippines is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), via its Global Impunity Index, ranked the Philippines as the seventh-worst country in the world for reporters, saying that 13 murders of journalists remained unsolved there.