Sorsogon City -- The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemned the killing of a former broadcaster in Albay, which police attributed to the New People’s Army, and challenged both the National Democratic Front and the rebel group to go after the perpetrators.

        Jose Loreno,56, a former announcer of radio stations DZRC and DWZR in Legaspi City, was shot by three unidentified suspects while tending his food stall in Brgy. Maroroy, Daraga, Albay Thursday evening.

        “If Loreno was killed because of his vocal opposition to the communist movement, his murder goes against the very grain of freedom of expression and opinion that even the rebels claim to espouse,” NUJP president Jose Torres said in a statement furnished the Bicol Mail.

        Torres said that “depriving people of their right to life and free expression for not agreeing with one’s beliefs is totally despicable, no matter whose hand wields the gun,”

        Supt. Jose capinpin, Daraga police chief, told Bicol Mail in a mobile phone interview that the victim was silenced by his former comrades in the underground movement after he became very vocal with his anti-communist ideas.

        The local NPA command in Albay has not issued any statement yet related to the killing which Supt. Arnold Albis of the Albay Provincial Police Office said was the first incident of extra-judicial killing in the province.

        The NUJP said they would look into the Loreno killing as it urged media practitioners “to abide by the profession’s basic tenets- accuracy, fairness and objectivity -- and not involve themselves in patently partisan activities, especially in shooting wars.”

        The Philippines thad earned the dubious honor of being the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists, next only to Iraq. Media Solution