Philippine newspaper editor killed

Philippine police say a newspaper editor who wrote about illegal gambling has been killed, the second journalist slain in the country in a week.

Police chief D'Artagnan Katalbas of Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province, south of Manila, says Vergel Bico was shot twice in the head Wednesday as he was driving his motorcycle.

Katalbas said Thursday that investigators were not discounting that Bico was killed because of his work.

Bico was an editor with the local Kalahi weekly.

Ronald Bula, publisher of a newspaper where Bico had previously worked as a columnist, said Bico had written recently about illegal gambling.

A southern Philippine radio commentator was killed last week.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines says nearly 160 journalists have been killed in the country since 1986.

 

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