A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook.
The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news broadcaster known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province, police said.
The attacker snatched the victim’s gold necklace before fleeing on a motorcycle with a companion who had been waiting outside, police said. An investigation is under way to identify the gunman and establish if the attack was work-related.
The Philippines has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr strongly condemned the shooting and said he had ordered the national police to track down, arrest and prosecute the killers.
In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their associates gunned down 58 people, including 32 media workers, in an attack in southern Maguindanao province. It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.
While the mass killing was later linked to a violent electoral rivalry common in many rural areas, it also showcased the threats faced by journalists in the Philippines. A surfeit of unlicensed guns and private armies controlled by powerful clans and weak law enforcement in rural regions are among the security concerns that journalists face in the poverty-stricken country.
Ask my 52-yo Filipina fiancé, she was there until 2 years ago and is a staunch Marcos “loyalist”.
Asking her about it was a wild ride, so much I had never heard. I had wondered how much was propaganda, and she can explain that as well.
I’ll get it all wrong, but I understand he built hospitals and schools and roads and more. She said everything stagnated and fell back to corruption after Marcos Sr. was ousted. Can’t remember what she said about Imelda, but I think my gf thought she just a dipstick.
She cautiously optimistic about Marcos Jr.
Bull-fucking-shit. That’s what apologists say.
But where the fuck did the money come from? What about all the money stolen? The distribution of the government agencies/powers to cronies? The human rights violations? All the fucking murders and rapes.
Damn right, they better have built some infrastructure. Pasting their names everywhere they could. But at what cost? And fuck, not a high bar - a decent government should do that.
But again, at what cost? With all the money that they fucking stole, all the deaths in their wake, and the chaos that had to happen for their ousting to happen, it’s not surprising that corruption had an easy way in.
And don’t think that Imelda was innocent or naive. Junior wasn’t a kid during this time either. They fucking know. They’ve been working on white-washing their name for decades now.
But I will never respect them or their work as long as they deny the sins of the Marcos regime. It’s like being a holocaust denier.