'Culture of impunity': Nerves frayed as motorbike shooter kills radio reporter in latest Philippines media murder

A Philippine radio reporter has been shot dead, police and colleagues said Monday, in the latest attack in a country known for dozens of unsolved killings of journalists.

Jose Bernardo, 44, was shot repeatedly by one of two suspects aboard a motorcycle outside a Manila restaurant late Saturday and died later in hospital, police said.

He had told his family he was meeting an unnamed person, according to authorities.

No suspects have been arrested in the attack, which also wounded a restaurant worker, and authorities said they were checking whether it was linked to Bernardo's work as a reporter.

“We denounce this killing regardless of the motive. It shows that there is still a culture of impunity at work,” the Philippines' National Press Club president Joel Sy Egco said.

Bernardo was a reporter and broadcaster for Manila's DWBL radio station, as well as a reporter for DWIZ, another station in the capital, Egco added.

Staff at both stations did not have any immediate comment on the attack.