Claim: Pastor Apollo Quiboloy said that most Filipino journalists recently killed were due to personal issues
Rating: FALSE
Facts: In his TV appearance in his own TV network SMNI, Apollo Quiboloy said: “Journalists were killed recently apparently due to personal issues and not due to state-sponsored killing. Do not lie, Maria Ressa.”
ABKD Network previously fact-checked this and showed that Quiboloy’s accusation is false https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=197896396075112&set=a.180589484472470
We went further and looked at the cases of the recent Filipino journalists at the UNESCO observatory of killed journalists in the Philippines.
We compiled the following for those killed from 2020 to present. There are eleven of them and nine could be work-related.
Cornelio Pepino https://cpj.org/data/people/rex-cornelio-pepino/
Jobert Bercasio https://cpj.org/…/journalist-jobert-bercasio-shot-and…/
Virgilio Maganes https://cpj.org/…/journalist-virgilio-maganes-shot-and…/
Orlando Dinoy https://www.rappler.com/…/family-slain-journalist…/
Ronnie Villamor https://cpj.org/…/philippine-soldiers-shoot-and-kill…/
Jesus Malabanan https://cpj.org/…/jesus-malabanan-reporter-who-covered…/
Federico Gempesaw https://cpj.org/…/radio-reporter-federico-gempesaw…/
Renato Blanco https://cpj.org/data/people/renato-blanco/
The last case, of course, is the most famous one; that of Percival Mabasa, who goes by the screen name Percy Lapid, who was shot dead last October 3. His death is still being investigated and has implicated a lot of high-profile personalities.
The other two which are initially being seen as non-work-related couldn’t be dismissed as such though.
Renante Cortes https://www.rappler.com/…/police-look-into-job-related…/
Jaynard Gonzales https://ipi.media/philippine-radio-commentator-shot-and…/
Cortes was seen as such because his loved ones said he had no perceived enemies. Even Orlando Dinoy was dismissed as a likeable fellow but then his recent broadcasts were about illegal gambling.
Gonzales resigned from his work as a radio manager to run for councilor in Sultan Kudarat and was subsequently shot dead.
Why we fact-checked this: All the cases listed above remain unresolved. To dismiss them as well as the later ones as “personal in nature” is insensitive and un-Christianlike.
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