MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A reporter at a government-run radio station was fatally shot on a southern island Monday, the latest victim in a string of killings of journalists in the Philippines, a colleague and officials said.
Vicente Sumalpong died of gunshot wounds in a hospital in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi after two gunmen on a motorbike fired at him while he was picking up his colleague to take her to work at Radyo ng Bayan.
''We are not hard-hitting journalists ... we have no known enemies,'' said the colleague, Vema Antham, who was unhurt in the attack.
Police said they're investigating the shooting. It was unclear if the incident was related to Sumalpong's work as a journalist.
John Manalili, deputy director of the Bureau of Broadcast Services, a government agency that runs the radio, urged police and the military to promptly investigate the killing.
''We hope they can set the record straight lest some sectors link this to extrajudicial killings,'' he said.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration has been criticized at home and abroad for a rising number of unsolved killings of left-wing activists, government critics and journalists.
According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, 52 reporters have been killed since 2001.
In the same period, the human rights group Karapatan has reported more than 800 activists killed and another 200 abducted by suspected security forces. Most of the victims are from left-wing groups branded by the military as fronts for a 39-year communist insurgency.
Arroyo, in a recent dialogue with media groups, ordered the designation of a special prosecution team to handle the media killings. She also has promised to eradicate what she called a generations-long cycle of political murders.
