Journalist slain in Davao Sur

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — A radio reporter was killed by a still unidentified gunman inside his rented house in Bansalan town, Davao del Sur early Saturday night, police said.

Maj. Glen Ipong, Bansalan municipal police chief, said Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy, a reporter of Catholic radio station dxOM in Kidapawan City, died at the scene from gunshots to the head.

Quoting the initial investigation, Ipong said the gunman casually entered Dinoy’s apartment at 6 p.m. last Saturday, approached him and opened fire.

Dinoy, it was learned, was also a correspondent of Newsline Philippines, a Davao City-based online news outfit on social media, and a volunteer anchor of Digos City-based Energy FM. He had a makeshift office inside his house.

Ipong said the killer had a motorcycle rider waiting for him as he exited Dinoy’s apartment on Mother Ignacia Street, Barangay Poblacion Uno, Bansalan.

Police are now investigating the identities of the two men who fled the scene and the motive in the attack.

Yesterday in Manila, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra announced the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) would be leading the investigation into Dinoy’s murder.

“The Presidential Task Force on Media Security will lead and coordinate the investigation,” said Guevarra, co-chairman of the PTFoMS.

He said the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine National Police would be part of the probe since they are member-agencies of the PTFoMS.

Guevarra also called on all members of media who think their lives may be under threat to coordinate with the task force.

“We are calling on all journalists and media persons who feel that their personal security is at risk to immediately inform the PTFoFMS, through its executive director Joel Egco, so that the task force may take all the necessary protective or preemptive measures,” he said.