Police following up leads in Zambo radioman’s slay

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Authorities are following up leads in Monday’s killing of a broadcaster in Kabasalan town, Zamboanga Sibugay.

“We have leads to follow up and the family is cooperating for the early resolution of the case,” said Senior Inspector Rico Pondol, police station commander of Kabasalan town.

Mario Vendiola Baylosis, 33, a disc jockey and reporter of community radio station dxLM 101.7 of Radyo Natin, had just finished his radio program when he was gunned down shortly before noon Monday by two motorcycle-riding men in front of a gasoline station along the highway in Barangay Salipyasin, Kabasalan town.

Pondol said they could not yet make any conclusions as the investigation is still underway.

Probers also refused to say if Baylosis was slain due to a personal grudge or his killing was work-related.

The killing has caught the attention of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, which called on Philippine authorities to thoroughly investigate Baylosis’ slay.

“These kinds of attacks against members of the media are rooted in a culture of impunity in the Philippines, where killers of journalists are rarely brought to justice,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia Program coordinator.

“We call on authorities to identify the motive behind this murder and bring the perpetrators to account,” he said.

At least 73 journalists, according to CPJ, have been killed in the Philippines since 1992, making it the second deadliest country in the world for the press after Iraq.

It said at least 55 journalist murders in the past decade have been unresolved and ranked the Philippines third on its impunity index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. – With Jose Katigbak