EDITORIAL - Will the impunity ever end?

Another day, another journalist murdered.

Radio broadcaster Noel Bellen Samar succumbed to four gunshot wounds on Oct. 21, a day after he was shot by an unidentified assailant in Guinobatan, Albay. The 54-year-old was a reporter for Kadunong ITV and dwIZ.

Police said Samar was driving along the Maharlika Highway at past 9 a.m. Monday when riders on two motorcycles pulled up on both sides of his vehicle and gunfire erupted. Samar died Tuesday afternoon in a hospital while awaiting surgery.

He became the eighth media worker to be killed since President Marcos assumed power in 2022. Press freedom watchdogs count 147 media workers killed in the Philippines since democracy was restored in 1986.

The massacre in Maguindanao in November 2009, wherein 32 of the 58 fatalities were media workers, still stands out in global notoriety for deadly violence against journalists.

Several of the principal perpetrators in that massacre at least have been convicted and are serving mostly life terms in national prisons.

Too many other cases targeting media workers remain unsolved. Or else only the triggerman has been arrested and convicted while the mastermind remains scot-free and has not been indicted.

This is the case with radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa, also known as Percy Lapid, who was shot dead in October 2022 near his home in Las Piñas. The gunman was quickly caught and is now serving a 16-year sentence following his conviction last May. But the accused mastermind, former corrections chief Gerald Bantag, remains at large.

Mabasa, in his radio program, had criticized Bantag for corruption. Across the country, such criticisms have cost many other journalists their life. The weakness in bringing the killers to justice has bred impunity. The Philippines has remained on the list of the most dangerous countries for media workers, and has retained its high global ranking for impunity in journalist killings.

Probers are still trying to determine if Noel Bellen Samar was shot dead in connection with his work. Regardless of the reason, Samar deserves justice. Allowing his murderers to roam free will likely encourage them to kill again.