A local radio broadcaster was gunned down in the southern Philippines on Monday, according to a presidential task force.
Erwin Labitad Segovia, 63, a Radio WOW FM anchor and station manager at Radyo Gugma — was shot in the head by unidentified assailants while riding his motorcycle home shortly after completing his morning broadcast in Bislig city, in the province of Surigao del Sur on the eastern coast of Mindanao Island.
Segovia, popularly known as “Boy Pana,” was well-known for his hard-hitting commentary on local governance and social issues during his on-air program Diritsahan!
Authorities have launched an investigation and have activated a Special Investigation Task Group to handle the case, said Jose Torres Jr., executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security.
“The safety of journalists remains a priority for the government, and justice for victims of media-related violence continues to be a national concern,” Torres said.
More than 200 journalists have been killed in the country since democracy was restored in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), including 32 in a single incident in 2009 in the south of the country. Segovia is the fifth radio journalist killed in the Philippines since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in June 2022
In 2025, the country ranked 116th out of 180 in the RSF’s World Press Freedom Index. It currently ranks ninth on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2024 Global Impunity Index, which tracks countries where killings of journalists frequently go unpunished.
“The brutal murder of Filipino radio journalist Erwin Segovia must not go unpunished. We urge the Philippine Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation so that the perpetrators and instigators of this horrific crime are brought to justice. We also call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to take the strongest measures to definitively end the culture of violence against journalists in his country, and to the sense of impunity that only encourages criminals to target the press,” said Cédric Alviani, RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director.
The NUJP strongly condemned the “brazen killing” of radio broadcaster, saying: “Segovia’s murder follows a grim pattern that reflects the longstanding climate of impunity that clouds the practice of journalism in the Philippines.”
“Philippine authorities must leave no stone unturned in identifying and prosecuting those responsible for the murder of journalist Erwin Labitad Segovia,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “If President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration fails to act more decisively, the cycle of impunity will persist — and so will the media killings.”