Vergel Bico, 41, who edited weekly paper, is second journalist to be killed in a week in Philippines.
Nearly 160 journalists have been killed since 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists. Photograph: Pat Roque/AP
A Philippine newspaper editor who recently wrote about illegal
gambling has been killed – the second journalist to be murdered in the
country in a week, police say.
Vergel Bico was shot twice in the head on Wednesday as he rode his motorcycle in Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province. The gunman fled on a motorcycle, which was driven by another man.
The police chief D'Artagnan Katalbas said the motive was not yet known but investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the killing was related to Bico's work as a journalist. "We are looking at suspected guns for hire here," Katalbas said.
Bico, 41, was editor of the weekly Kalahi newspaper in Calapan, about 75 miles south of Manila.
Ronald Bula, publisher of the Bandera Pilipino weekly, where Bico worked as a columnist for two years before leaving last October, said Bico had recently written about illegal gambling in another Mindoro town.
Last week, the radio commentator Fernando Solijon was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding assailant in southern Iligan City.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Solijon had criticised local politicians on his programme and linked a village chief to illegal drugs.
Nearly 160 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the union said.
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Vergel Bico was shot twice in the head on Wednesday as he rode his motorcycle in Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province. The gunman fled on a motorcycle, which was driven by another man.
The police chief D'Artagnan Katalbas said the motive was not yet known but investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the killing was related to Bico's work as a journalist. "We are looking at suspected guns for hire here," Katalbas said.
Bico, 41, was editor of the weekly Kalahi newspaper in Calapan, about 75 miles south of Manila.
Ronald Bula, publisher of the Bandera Pilipino weekly, where Bico worked as a columnist for two years before leaving last October, said Bico had recently written about illegal gambling in another Mindoro town.
Last week, the radio commentator Fernando Solijon was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding assailant in southern Iligan City.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Solijon had criticised local politicians on his programme and linked a village chief to illegal drugs.
Nearly 160 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the union said.
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