A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook.
The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news broadcaster known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province, police said.
The attacker snatched the victim’s gold necklace before fleeing on a motorcycle with a companion who had been waiting outside, police said. An investigation is under way to identify the gunman and establish if the attack was work-related.
The Philippines has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr strongly condemned the shooting and said he had ordered the national police to track down, arrest and prosecute the killers.
In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their associates gunned down 58 people, including 32 media workers, in an attack in southern Maguindanao province. It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.
While the mass killing was later linked to a violent electoral rivalry common in many rural areas, it also showcased the threats faced by journalists in the Philippines. A surfeit of unlicensed guns and private armies controlled by powerful clans and weak law enforcement in rural regions are among the security concerns that journalists face in the poverty-stricken country.
It blows my mind that this corrupt family is still in power.
Boggles my mind how in the late 80s how much the Filipino had to do to get his dad out of power only for them to vote in his son (who has the exact same name as him) out of nostalgia for the good olde days.
This type of behavior (and many other things) make me question the rationality of the electorate in democracies.
It seems like people do really irrational things all the time. This is generally due to cultural norms and the information they are most exposed to.
If you think the Democratic party in the US is in league with people who extract adrenochrome from terrified children to use as a youth elixer and you think Donald Trump will stop this, then, yes, Donald Trump is a rational choice.
The facts underlying this are completely irrational and unproven but your cultural norms make you think “I don’t need proof, if I did I’d be questioning my religion, so feeling like it’s true is enough” plus “if I question this narrative, I will be shunned by the people I want/need the most.”
Again, believing this or at least acting as though you believe this, is rational in terms of ego protection and in group status.
For people who are scared of being excluded (which might mean physical violence, loss of jobs, loss of family, etc) anything is better than that.
You’re ignoring the media, a significant pillar of control, and that it isn’t “cultural norm” but the result of non-stop propaganda, perhaps slightly adapted by locale, but still just propaganda, designed by those actually in charge and pulling all the strings (those in government, and/or those bankrolling them, and of course the media that supports them because the systems they uphold benefit their rich owners) to make the population look anywhere and blame anyone apart from those actually in charge and pulling all the strings.
It isn’t a mystery, it’s a well documented fact that I think most people like to ignore because accepting it means admitting you’ve also been subject to it and have fallen for a lot of its lies.
But we all have, and the only way to stop, is by abolishing the system that needs all this toxic brainwashing to survive, not by playing along with it and looking to point the finger anywhere else (like on an “irrational” electorate).
E: not trying to be an ass, just saying open your eyes and be willing to be uncomfortable with the full extent of how manipulated our lives are, who is doing this manipulation, and why (money and power, the answer is always money and power in a system designed to funnel those in to the hands of a small handful of people so that they can control the rest)
The media is the source of misinformation. I thought that was clear, sorry. The fact is Fox News has equal or less weight to it for a lot of maga people than far more extreme news sources. I would lump in social sites since it is trivial to drive home an agenda or talking point with the cooperation of influencers hungry for views.
It is a problem between the irrational nature of a few people versus the irrational nature of the population.
Yes, you have a crazy guy like trump coinciding with a popular hunger for a mob justice approach to cultural issues and foreign policy and you’ve got trouble.
Hell, it’s not a democracy, but Putin made Stalin be popular again recently. They needed some figure to rally around and generate national pride, and yeah. Stalin. Great guy there today.
Ask my 52-yo Filipina fiancé, she was there until 2 years ago and is a staunch Marcos “loyalist”.
Asking her about it was a wild ride, so much I had never heard. I had wondered how much was propaganda, and she can explain that as well.
I’ll get it all wrong, but I understand he built hospitals and schools and roads and more. She said everything stagnated and fell back to corruption after Marcos Sr. was ousted. Can’t remember what she said about Imelda, but I think my gf thought she just a dipstick.
She cautiously optimistic about Marcos Jr.
Bull-fucking-shit. That’s what apologists say.
But where the fuck did the money come from? What about all the money stolen? The distribution of the government agencies/powers to cronies? The human rights violations? All the fucking murders and rapes.
Damn right, they better have built some infrastructure. Pasting their names everywhere they could. But at what cost? And fuck, not a high bar - a decent government should do that.
But again, at what cost? With all the money that they fucking stole, all the deaths in their wake, and the chaos that had to happen for their ousting to happen, it’s not surprising that corruption had an easy way in.
And don’t think that Imelda was innocent or naive. Junior wasn’t a kid during this time either. They fucking know. They’ve been working on white-washing their name for decades now.
But I will never respect them or their work as long as they deny the sins of the Marcos regime. It’s like being a holocaust denier.
Not still in power; in power again. That’s arguably worse because it means the Philippines got rid of them once and then decided they needed more.
Oh, so like Bush family in the US. And maybe the Trumps if the violent minority has their way.
He recently got elected. Strange time in politic world.
Proud Pinoy!!!
/s