Arecio Padrigao

A motorcycle-riding gunman shot radio commentator Padrigao outside Bukidnon State University in Misamis Oriental province on the southern island of Mindanao, according to international news reports. The journalist died en route to a hospital. Several reports said the man targeted Padrigao while he was dropping his child off at school. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said two assailants may have been involved.

CPJ is investigating the union’s report that Padrigao had received recent death threats in connection with his radio program “Sayre ang Katilingban” (Know the Society) on DXRS, a local affiliate of Radyo Natin. The commentator had criticized corruption and illegal logging in his broadcasts, news reports said. Police told journalists they were still investigating the motive for the murder.

Padrigao leased airtime under a practice known as block-timing, in which commentators also solicit their own advertisers. A number of block-time broadcasters have been killed in recent years.