Former Remate editor and operations manager Gwenn Salamida was shot dead in her salon last August 17, Thursday. The gunman allegedly barged into her salon, also gunning down her companion, Oliver Perona, who is in critical condition according to the Quezon City Police District’s (QCPD) initial report.
Both Perona and Salamida were cleaning inside GOTT Salon on Kaingin Road, Brgy. Apolonio Samson at around 3:35 PM when the unidentified assailant fired at them.
The QCPD are currently probing in on the killing, and ensure that they will “look at every angle to discover the motive.” The police see robbery as a primary motive. Meanwhile, various media and human rights groups have condemned pervasive attacks on journos.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) gravely denounced Salamida’s killing alongside the numerous attacks and murders of the press by the Duterte regime.
“Press freedom is being held at gunpoint, with the heightening culture of impunity, and journalists’ safety and security are always at risk at all times,” CEGP stated.
Last July 22, journo Rey Cortes was also shot dead outside dyRb station in Mambaling, Cebu City. He was rushed to the hospital however, was announced dead on arrival.
The heavily-funded National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), alongside the police and military, rampantly threaten the security of and attacks campus journalists. Several UP Solidaridad publications have also been red-baited and persistently attacked by state-sponsored trolls.
France-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) previously reported President Duterte as one of the 37 state heads known to be “press freedom predators,” for having incurred a “grotesque judicial harassment” against media news outlets like Rappler, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the shut down of the media giant ABS-CBN. They went on to state that Duterte’s administration “specifically targeted” those who critically reported on his war on drugs.
According to the State of the Media 2021 report of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), at least 20 journalists have been killed under the President’s bloody attack on press freedom. Journalism’s situation in the country remains grim and while anti-people policies continue to reign, CEGP furthers that the Duterte regime will use the “utmost violence just to assure no one will dissent.”
CEGP demands justice for the murder of Salamida and other journos, as the youth stand together with the journalists to never cease in clamoring to defend press freedom.
Featured image courtesy of Maharlika TV.
