Newspaper publisher shot to death

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – The publisher of the only daily tabloid, published in the local dialect and based in Trinidad town, was shot to death Thursday morning at a nearby city bus terminal here by two still unidentified assailants, one of whom was a woman, police report said.

Antonio “Tony” Silagon, 74, publisher of the Bohol Balita Daily News, was declared dead later at around 3 p.m. by physicians of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, a DOH facility, where he was treated immediately after he was shot.

Police authorities, according to reports yesterday, still have no clues on the identities and motive of the killing of Silagon, who also served as chief executive officer of the Loay Community Multi-purpose Cooperative, based in his hometown of Loay.

The report however said the police have however looking into three angles: love triangle, land dispute and work-related out of his being a tabloid publisher.

Silagon was walking alone from his house to the bus terminal to take a ride for Loay town when the motorcycle-riding men accosted him and pumped bullets to his body before fleeing quickly to sitio Lanao of Barangay Dao in this city.

As this developed, members of the interim National Union of Journalist of the Philippines (NUJP) Bohol-chapter condemned the killing and expressed sympathy to Silagon’s family.

NUJP said the killing was an assault to press freedom and urged authorities to bring the suspects to justice. It warned that if Silagon’s case won’t be solved and justice denied, the culture of impunity would continue. “How many more journalists will be shot and killed,” it asked.