MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang will “take a look” at the probe into the killing of a broadcast journalist known for his biting critique of the current administration.

Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Hubert Guevara, speaking to Malacañang Press Corps officers on Tuesday, October 4, said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is “very concerned” over the shooting in Las Piñas of radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa, better known as Percy Lapid.

Mabasa was gunned down at around 8:30 pm on October 3 by unidentified motorcycle riding assailants. Witnesses said Mabasa was inside his vehicle when he was shot dead.

“We have been instructed to take a look at the conduct of the investigation on the ambush of him last night,” said Guevara, adding that he plans on meeting with officials from the Presidential Task Force on Media Security.

Guevara, the next top official in the Office of the Executive Secretary after Lucas Bersamin himself, said he also planned to meet with the officers of Souther Police District (SPD) as well. Las Piñas is under jurisdiction of the SPD.

He said he would tell the cops probing the killing to “ensure that the conduct of investigation proceeds without any problem and submit to us, report to us, hopefully within the next seven days.”

Mabasa is the second journalist to be killed under the current Marcos administration, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Another radio broadcaster, Rey Blanco, was stabbed dead in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, on September 18.

He is also the 197th journalist killed in the country since 1986, or the restoration of democracy. Based on the NUJP’s own tally, most media workers killed in the Philippines worked in radio.

The NUJP said Mabasa’s killing “shows that journalism remains a dangerous profession in the country.”

“That the incident took place in Metro Manila indicates how brazen the perpetrators were, and how authorities have failed to protect journalists as well as ordinary citizens from harm,” the group said. – Rappler.com