Sorsogon City radio announcer shot dead

LEGAZPI CITY — A radio broadcaster and leftist political activist was shot dead in Sorsogon City last Friday morning, becoming the seventh journalist murdered in the country this year, the police said.

Ricardo Uy, 50, an announcer of radio station dxRS and provincial chairman of the party-list group Bayan Muna, was gunned down on the steps of his home in Barangay Basud in the west district, about a kilometer away from the city proper, at about 1 a.m. last Friday, said Sorsogon City police chief Formoso Agarin.

The gunman, who was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, casually walked away toward the Cawayan Bridge and boarded a red motorcycle driven by another man, the police said.

Witnesses described the triggerman as sporting long, blonde hair and about five feet, 11 inches tall, and carried a backpack.

Uy, who managed a small business, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Sorsogon Doctors Hospital. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

The motive for the killing was still unknown.

Police investigators found five empty shells, a live bullet and a deformed slug from a caliber .45 pistol from the crime scene.

Agarin said a team from the 508th Provincial Mobile Group under Senior Superintendent Arnold Revilla, Sorsogon police director, was dispatched to help the Sorsogon City police go after Uy’s killer.

Uy, together with Bayan Muna local spokeswoman Beverly Quintillan, hosted a daily radio program sponsored by the party-list group on dxRS.

Uy was reportedly one of the organizers of various transport strikes in Sorsogon City.

Groups of journalists condemned Uy’s killing as a crime against press freedom.

Six other journalists were killed in the country earlier this year. Thirteen were killed last year, earning the Philippines a reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous places for reporters.

The other journalists slain this year were Edgar Amoro, a freelance broadcaster in Pagadian City, Feb. 2; Arnulfo Villanueva, of Asian Star Express Balita in Naic, Cavite, Feb. 28; Marlene Garcia Esperat, of the Midland Review in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, March 24; Klein Cantoneros, of dxAA-FM in Dipolog City, May 4; Philip Agustin, of Starline Times Recorder in Dingalan, Aurora, May 10; and Rolando Morales, of dwMD-Radio Mindanao Network in South Cotabato, July 3.

Uy’s murder is also the latest in a rash of killings of leftist activists, which militant groups have blamed on the military. — With AFP and Cesar Ramirez