Slay try on RGMA station manager condemned

An international media watchdog group condemned Thursday night the recent shooting of RGMA Bacolod station manager Ferdinand "Bambi" Yngson in Sagay City in Negros Occidental. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the incident was yet another example of the unsafe conditions that working journalists face in the Philippines. "Four journalists have been killed in the Philippines already this year ... The Philippines government must act not only to protect the press freedom enshrined in its Constitution, but to protect the journalists who seek to enforce it," IFJ Asia Pacific director Jacqueline Park said in a statement posted on the website of its Philippine affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Thursday night. Yngzon was shot and wounded after, Romeo Corbo, a deputized Land Transportation Office (LTO) agent allegedly shot him in front of the public market Wednesday morning. Before the incident, Yngson made critical remarks about alleged extortion activities at the LTO in Bacolod. Corbo was arrested immediately following the incident. Park called on Philippine investigators to "find and convict" those responsible for the incident, and to "lay down an appropriate punishment." "This sort of violence is completely unacceptable. The authorities must set an example that such violations of free expression and human rights will be punished, so that journalists can work without fear," she said. - GMANews.TV