Outrage after three journalists killed in Philippines

Manila

Three journalists in the Philippines have been shot dead just days apart, press groups said yesterday, as they warned of further media bloodshed without serious government action.

The nation of 100 million people has long been one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists, with powerful figures able to kill critics in the knowledge they will rarely face punishment.

Police and the Committee to Protect Journalists said the latest victim was radio commentator Cosme Maestrado, 46, shot dead in front of a public market in the southern port city of Ozamiz on August 27.

Before Maestrado, radio reporter Teodoro Escanilla, 57, was shot inside his home in a fishing town in rural Sorsogon province on August 19, according to local police and the CPJ.

A day earlier, newspaper reporter Gregory Ybanez, 67, was gunned down in front of his house in Tagum city, a banana-growing centre in the south, where he also headed the local press association, police said.

The Philippines is infamous for a "culture of impunity", where the rich and powerful can literally get away with murder by taking advantage of corrupt police and judicial figures.

The latest killings bring to 29 the number of journalists murdered since Aquino assumed office in 2010, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.