adminThree journalists have been gunned down in the Philippines in its worst spate of media killings in nearly four years, police and rights watchdogs said yesterday.The latest victim, freelance news photographer Mario Sy, was killed in front of his wife and child late Thursday by two suspects who broke into his home in the southern city of General Santos, police said.
Sy’s 15-year-old daughter Marisol said her family had just finished dinner when the gunmen struck.
“One unidentified man barged in and shot at him.
My father was not hit but the gunman got closer and shot him again,” she told reporters.
“I ran outside and saw the suspect walking casually toward his companion, who was waiting outside. They disappeared in the dark,” she said.
The attack followed the shooting deaths in Manila on Tuesday of two columnists on a tabloid newspaper that had recently ceased publication, said Rupert Mangilit, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
“We’re quite alarmed that despite claims that the environment for journalists is safer now, we have three killings happening in a week,” he told AFP. — AFP
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