Negros Oriental broadcaster killed

December 28, 2018

A radio announcer was killed in the town of La Libertad, Negros Oriental early Friday morning, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said.

Gabriel Alburo, 50, was heading home to Guihulngan City on his motorcycle from a cockfight derby when he was shot by two men on another motorcycle on the national highway in Barangay North Poblacion around 3:05 a.m.

He is the second media practitioner to be killed in Negros Oriental this year after Edmund Sestoso in Dumaguete on April 30.

If his death is proven to be work-related, this brings to 13 the number of journalists killed since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in mid-2016 and 186 since 1986.

Alburo had recently resumed broadcasting over 94.5 dyJL FM, a community station in Guihulgan.

Local media said he was also running for councilor in Guihulngan as an independent.

On Thursday, five persons were reported dead while several were arrested during police operations in Guihulngan. DMS