THREE days before the World Press Freedom Day commemoration, a radio broadcaster from Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen.
On April 30, Edmund Sestoso was on his way home after his radio program when he was waylaid and gunned down by unidentified gunmen, who also shot the tires of the pedicab whose driver wanted to rush the radioman to the hospital.
The following day, Sestoso succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds.
He is the ninth journalist killed in the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, and the 182nd since 1986.
A report from the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Philippine Press Institute (PPI), and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) showed that 85 various cases of attacks and threats were recorded in Duterte's first 22 months.
These cases include murders, death threats, slay attempts, libel, online harassment, website attacks, revoked registration or denied franchise renewal, verbal abuse, strafing, and police surveillance of journalists and media agencies.
Duterte and his predecessor, former president Benigno Aquino III, listed the same number of journalists killed in their first two years of presidency.
Most of the cases were not yet resolved by the police, including the case of the 32 journalists who were killed in Maguindanao in 2009.
It's infuriating as these killings continue to mount, yet the state seemed to turn a blind eye.
As we continue the call for a free press, we also demand to stop killing the journalists.