A radio journalist and correspondent of a Manila daily in Cebu City was reported shot by a still unidentified assailant inside a public utility vehicle past noon on Thursday, December 16.
Local media reports said radio journalist Rico Osmeña was on board a public utility jeep when he was shot by a lone gunman. Another passenger was reported to have been wounded.
The reports said the victims were rushed to a hospital where their condition was still unknown as of posting time.
Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security told LiCAS News that he is personally looking into the incident.
“We condemn the attack on our fellow journalist, and rest assured that we are doing our best to look into the incident and apprehend the perpetrators or perpetrator the soonest,” said Egco.
The local police said they are investigating the incident to determine the identity of the assailant and the motive behind the crime, said media reports.
Osmeña hosts a program titled “Karon Sugbo” on local radio DYLA where he announced days before the shooting that he received threats from someone he did not identify.
Osmeña is the second radio journalist who was attacked in Cebu this year. On July 22, radio announcer Reynante Cortes, 47, was shot to death in the village of Mambaling.
The attack on Osmeña came on the same day the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders released a report that noted a lower number of journalists killed this year.
