ILOILO CITY, June 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Filipino journalists reacted with anger to the killing of a reporter working in the southern turbulent region of Mindanao last week.

The fatal shooting of Eliseo Binoya on June 17 "is alarming", said Keith Bacongco, a freelance correspondent for national and international news agencies.

Binoya was already the second Filipino journalist to be killed this year. In 2003, seven journalists were murdered in the country whose journalists are considered to be the freest in Southeast Asia.

To many other Filipino journalists, the killing of a journalist is a brazen violation of press freedom in the Asian country.

Diosa Labiste, a director of the National Union of Journalists’ of the Philippines, told IslamOnline.net that warlords and politicians must accept the fact that journalists are there to report on what they see and hear.

"No journalist should be killed for the story he or she has written," as "there are venues for a party to seek grievance if he or she feels aggrieved by a journalist or a journalist’s work".

In its annual report 2004, The Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said: "The Philippines, especially Mindanao island, continued to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists."

Citing the murders in 2003, RWB said: "The seven journalists, most of whom worked for local radio stations, were murdered because of what they reported or commented about corruption, political violence or abuses by local officials."

A protest action was held by journalists last year appealing to stop the killings of their fellow journalists.

Binoya’s murder was condemned as a "cowardly act" and "a blatant violation of press freedom" by Jose Torres Jr., who heads the Commission for the Protection of Journalists of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

"Binoya's murder was unconscionable," read the statement of the NUJP, an association of Filipino journalists.

Nestor Burgos Jr., NUJP Iloilo chapter coordinator, said that generally these killings were ordered by politicians “whose illegal activities or graft and corrupt practices have been reported or commented on by the journalists.”

If not politicians, he said, the main culprits are those in the illegal trade of narcotics or other outlawed businesses such as illegal logging, who, like the politicians, did not like that “their interests or illegal businesses are being reported about or criticized by media.”

NUJP called on the authorities to "investigate this case thoroughly and resolve it quickly".

It urged President Gloria Arroyo "to make good on her promise to protect journalists. She must see to it that suspects in Binoya's case, as well as in the other cases, are brought to justice as soon as possible".

Arroyo has vowed to find justice for killings of journalists. In February this year, she assured the victims’ families that the government would not rest until the culprits are brought to justice and the senseless killings of journalists be put to stop.

"We reiterate our position that the series of unsolved murders of journalists contributes to the climate of impunity against journalists, particularly in the provinces, where most of these attacks take place," said the NJUP.

Filipino journalists are not alone in calling on the government to do something about the killings.

"The Philippines cannot claim to be a country that respects press freedom while journalists are killed with impunity," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

"We call on Philippine authorities to investigate Binoya's murder and bring those responsible to justice," Cooper said.

RWB also voiced dismay at Binoya’s murder and urged the authorities to do everything possible to ensure that those responsible receive an exemplary punishment.

"Some hit-men have been arrested for previous murders of journalists but the instigators have never been brought to justice," the group said in a letter to interior and local government Secretary José Lina.

"As a result, the Filipino judicial authorities allow the instigators to continue silencing their press critics with complete impunity."

Binoya is the second journalist to be murdered in the Philippines this year. In February, Ruel Endrinal, a commentator on radio station DZRC was shot and killed in Legazpi City, Albay province, in the northern Philippines.

He was going home aboard his motorcycle when two motorcycle-riding men tailed and shot him from behind. He died instantly.

The suspects, whom Binoya sued, were relatives of the town mayor he was criticizing in his radio program.

His death bring to at least 52, the number of journalists killed in their line of duty since democracy was restored in the Philippines in 1986 after 20 years of authoritarian rule. Of these deaths, no one has been prosecuted.

Despite these killings, Bacongco, who started his journalism career in 1998, goes on with his daily grind as he used to do all this years.

"I feel alarmed but the way I pursue my stories has not changed. I think it depends on the journalist and his or her dedication to the craft to be cowed by these murders."

Bacongco suggests that journalists must "organize ourselves against these crooks and politicians."