AUTHORITIES launched a hot pursuit operation against an unidentified gunman who shot and killed a 63-year-old hard-hitting radio broadcaster in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur, on Monday morning, July 21, 2025. The victim, identified as Erwin Labitad Segovia, or popularly known as “Boy Pana,” served as the host of the radio program “Diritsahan!” of Radio WOW FM, whose topics revolved on local governance, community issues, and socio-political topics. Initial police reports showed that Segovia had just ended his broadcast and was on his way home when he was followed by two unidentified assailants on a black motorcycle. He was shot on the head along John Bosco Street, Barangay Mangagoy, Bislig City, Surigao del Sur. Undersecretary Jose Torres Jr., executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, said his office is already coordinating with the Philippine National Police Media Vanguards and the Media-Citizen Council in Region 13 to expedite the investigation. Torres urged the public and the media community to remain vigilant and to share any information that can aid in the investigation, and maintained that the incident underscores the urgent need to strengthen the protection for journalists in the country. A former mayor of another town of Surigao del Sur province came forward and offered a P1 million pesos bounty to those who can give any information that will lead to the identity and arrest of the gunmen of Segovia. This incident is the latest in a series of attacks on radio journalists in the Philippines, which Reporters Without Borders has described as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers, with 89 radio journalists killed on the job since 1986.
