November 6, 2023
MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday to conduct a “thorough investigation” on the assassination of local broadcaster and radio station owner Juan Jumalon in Misamis Occidental.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the murder of broadcaster Juan Jumalon. I have instructed the PNP to conduct a thorough investigation to swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice,” Marcos said in a tweet in X.
“Attacks on journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy, and those who threaten the freedom of the press will face the full consequences of their actions,” he added.
Based on police reports, 43-year-old Jumalon, popularly known as DJ Jonny Walker, was shot twice by an unknown gunman inside his radio booth in Calamba town around 5:35 a.m.
A video clip of his death that went viral on Sunday morning showed that Jumalon was shot through his mouth. The victim’s family brought him to Calamba District Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Aside from the chief executive’s order, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) also called on the PNP to form a special investigation task group to probe the case.
Although the investigation is ongoing, PTFoMS executive director Paul Gutierrez earlier said that the suspect’s motive might have been “work-related.”
For his part, National Union of Journalists in the Philippines chair Jonathan De Santos condemned the brutal death of Jumalon, who, according to him, was the 199th journalist killed since democracy was restored in 1986 and the fourth under the current administration.