Second broadcaster shot dead in a week in the Philippines

Philippines police said on Friday in Manila a radio broadcaster and human rights activist was assassinated in the eastern Philippines.

Police Superintendent Nonito Marquez, said Teodoro Escanilla, the second media professional to be killed in the country this week, died on Thursday at a hospital in Sorsogon City, about 370 kilometres south-east of Manila,.

He said the assailants barged into the victim’s house late Wednesday in the nearby town of Barcelona and shot him several times.

Marquez said he was a broadcaster for Sorsogon-based radio station DZMS and a spokesman for a human rights group called Karapatan.

Police said on Tuesday, Gregorio Ybanez, the President of the Davao Del Norte Press and Radio-TV Club, was gunned down in Tagum City, about 950 kilometres south of Manila.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines noted that, Escanilla was the fifth media professional killed in the country in 2015, and the 29th since President Benigno Aquino took office in 2010.