Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)

(CMFR/IFEX) – A reporter-columnist for a tabloid in Tarlac province, central Philippines, has become the third journalist to be killed in the country this year. Bonifacio Gregorio, who worked for the local weekly “Dyaryo Banat” (“Attack” newspaper), was shot to death on 8 July 2003 by an unidentified assailant in front of his house in […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – According to Edgar Amoro, one of the two vital witnesses to the 13 May 2002 killing of journalist Edgar Damalerio in Pagadian City, southern Philippines, the former policeman suspected of murdering the journalist now wears a surgical mask to elude arrest and is hunting the two witnesses vital to the murder case. Amoro […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – An unknown gunman shot a radio broadcaster on 12 June 2003 in Cebu City. The broadcaster survived the assassination attempt. According to reports, Reynaldo Cortes, aged 30, a “blocktimer” at radio station dyDD Bantay Radyo (Radio Watch), was hit in the right groin. (Blocktimers buy air time from radio stations for their own […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – Two men believed to be bodyguards of a local politician were arrested on 22 May 2003 in connection with the 17 May killing of DWTI-AM radio announcer Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda, in Lucena City, Quezon, central Philippines. Press reports quoted Senior Superintendent Ricardo Padilla, Quezon police director and head of “Task Force Polly”, saying […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – Two men on a motorcycle shot and killed a radio broadcaster on 17 May 2003 in Lucena City, Quezon province, south of Manila. The murder happened less than three weeks after a similar tandem gunned down another broadcaster in Legazpi City, Albay. Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda, aged 35, an announcer on local radio station […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – At least three armed men broke into a local radio station in Surigao del Sur, southern Philippines, and destroyed all its equipment before dawn on 14 March 2003, the Manila newspaper “Philippine Star” reported on 15 March. Wearing ski masks and armed with pistols and an M-16 rifle, the men arrived at the […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – A correspondent for the Philippines’ most widely circulated newspaper has received death threats after submitting a news story about Augusto Sanchez, the chief of staff for Pampanga province Vice-Governor Miguel Arroyo. Arroyo is President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s son. “Philippine Daily Inquirer” Central Luzon correspondent Tonette Orejas is under police protection. On 15 March 2003, […]

(CMFR/IFEX) – The widow of a murdered Filipino journalist recently filed both criminal and administrative cases against a former provincial police commander after the primary suspect in the killing, a policeman under restrictive supervision within the commander’s camp, escaped after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Through a relative, Gemma Damalerio, widow of slain […]