A crime journalist has been shot dead in Manila, police and colleagues said yesterday, the latest addition to a lengthening list of unsolved murders of media workers in the Philippines.
Alex Balcoba, 56, was attacked late on Friday outside a watch repair shop in central Manila owned by his family, the National Press Club of the Philippines said.
Club president Paul Gutierrez said the attack on Balcoba, a reporter for the People’s Brigada tabloid, brought to more than 30 the number of journalists killed in the Philippines since 2010, with no suspects yet brought to justice.
Photo: EPA
“The culture of impunity that is behind these attacks is yet to be addressed by the authorities despite their repeated boasts and promises,” Gutierrez added.
The two gunmen fled on a motorcycle after shooting Balcoba, Gutierrez said.
Fellow journalists took Balcoba to hospital, where he was pronounced dead, he added.
Manila police confirmed Balcoba had been shot and killed, but gave no further details.
Gutierrez said police had assured him they would investigate the killing.
Colleagues described Balcoba as a news reporter and columnist at the little-known People’s Brigada who had written about the Manila police since the 1990s.
Calls by reporters to the newspaper’s office went unanswered.
Balcoba is the second journalist to be murdered in the Philippines this year, and the 34th since 2010 when President Benigno Aquino III came to power, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
He is also the 174th journalist killed since a bloodless uprising ended former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos leadership 30 years ago, a union official said.
Just 10 suspects have been convicted for attacks on journalists across the nation since 1986, the union said.
Known for its outspoken media, the Philippines is one of the most dangerous nations for reporters, where powerful figures often kill critics with impunity.
Police said some of the killings are also motivated by quarrels over personal or business matters.
One of the world’s deadliest attacks against journalists took place in the Philippines in 2009, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed by a warlord clan intent on stopping a rival’s election challenge.
More than 100 people are on trial for that massacre.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing