Media groups and press freedom activists in the Philippines have condemned the killing of journalist Percival Mabasa, who was fatally shot near his home in the country’s capital.
The 63-year-old radio broadcaster, who was also known as Percy Lapid, was killed by two assailants on a motorcycle at the gate of a residential compound in the Las Pinas area of suburban Manila on Monday night, police said on Tuesday. In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Mabasa’s killing showed that “journalism remains a dangerous profession” in the country.
“That the incident took place in Metro Manila indicates how brazen the perpetrators were, and how authorities have failed to protect journalists as well as ordinary citizens from harm,” it added.
Mabasa had been critical of “red-tagging” – accusing someone of being a communist sympathiser – as well as online gambling operations and misinformation around martial law, the union said. He was also an outspoken critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte as well as policies and officials in the government of his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, it added.
Credit: Aljazeera
