Veteran print and radio journalist Juan Balagtas does not leave his home in the southern city of Zamboanga without a loaded gun.
He drives around in a heavily tinted van with a bodyguard as he heads to the local radio station, where his popular program attacking corrupt politicians and Islamic militants airs daily.
"I carry a .45-caliber pistol if I go out. It's difficult to move around when you know you have enemies," said Balagtas, who also writes for a Manila broadsheet.
Balagtas is not his real name, because he feared if he was identified, "I may not live tomorrow."
Zamboanga is a hotbed of Al-Qaeda-linked militants as well as political warlords who have private armies that are often better armed than the police and military.
Forty-five broadcast journalists have been gunned down in the Philippines since democracy was restored after the peaceful "People Power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Six reporters have been killed so far this year. The latest was broadcaster Fernando Consignado, whose body was found Thursday with a bullet wound to the head in his home south of Manila.
Just days earlier, radio journalist Jonathan Abayon was shot in the head by a former soldier following a heated argument in the southern city of General Santos.
Reporter and radio correspondent Arnel Manalo was killed by gunmen riding a motorcycle earlier this month, as was crusading radio commentator Rogelio Mariano on July 31. Other journalists were killed in February and June.
Police are probing whether the killings were work-related, and said they would ease restrictions on gun permits for journalists.
The move has triggered a heated debate in a country where a proliferation of unlicensed firearms is blamed for rising crime.
Balagtas said only bona-fide members of the press whose lives were in danger should be allowed to arm themselves.
"You don't really have to own a firearm if you're not under threat and you know you didn't do anything wrong," he said.
Three years ago, one of his colleagues was gunned down outside his home after allegedly angering a politician.
Balagtas himself had to lie low for months after receiving threats and being followed by a man the police had identified as a suspect in his friend's murder.
"I grew a beard, changed my appearance. I knew they were after me," Balagtas said. "I carried my pistol around, because I was also receiving threats I would be killed."
The suspect in his friend's killing remains at large, with the family failing to pursue the case in court since a witness was killed.
Jaime Laude, a newspaper journalist covering the police and military beats in Manila, also owns a handgun and has undergone rigid training in handling firearms.
"In this trade, especially when you cover the police and political beats, you are exposed to threats to your life. You do your work, and sometimes people get hurt," he said.
However, he said the responsibility of maintaining peace and order lay with the police.
"If you arm all the journalists, you might as well arm all civilians and disband the police and the military," Laude said.
Guns will not ensure safety against a "determined killer" and corrupt police officers, Laude said.
"It is a sad reflection on law enforcement when the best defense journalists are offered is advice to carry a weapon," the Committee to Protect Journalists Asia coordinator Abi Wright said.
"The problem with impunity remains paramount in the Philippines... That is the best defense for freedom of the press," she said.
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they