Soldiers found the decomposing remains of radio announcer Eddie Jesus Apostol in a marshland in Maguindanao, Southern Philippines, five days after he was reported missing, AFP reports.
According to public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division Colonel Prudencio Asto, Apostol’s hands and feet were bound by a rope and he had two bullet wounds in the head when soldiers recovered his body from the Liguasan marshland. Motives behind the murder are still not clear but media watchdog National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) did not rule out “possible work-related” killing.
Apostol, 52, is the sixth victim of deliberate journalist killings in the country this year. Apostol, a former municipal councilor of Magpet in North Cotabato, started his once-a-week radio program “Council on the Air” in Kidapawan City just two months ago. The show discusses developmental issues and interviewed local government officials on their programs and projects.
The killing occurred in the wake of the “Maguindanao massacre” where 57 civilians and 32 media persons were atrociously murdered by a powerful political clan’s private army in November 2009.
