DJ Johnny Walker Murdered During Live Radio Show

Juan Jumalon, a radio anchor known as DJ Johnny Walker, has died. According to police, Jumalon, 57, was fatally shot during a live morning broadcast Sunday inside his home-based studio in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province. The shooter, who has not been caught, allegedly gained entry into the studio by asking permission to announce “something important on air,” per the BBC, and then shot the anchor twice.

The shooting occurred at around 5:30 local time as Jumalon was broadcasting his Cebuano-language show at the 94.7 Gold FM Calamba station live on Facebook. A video of the attack showed Jumalon pausing and looking up at something away from the camera before two shots rang out, the BBC reported. The radio personality then slumped back in his chair bloodied as background music continued to play. His wife took him to hospital immediately after the incident, but Jumalon was pronounced dead upon arrival.

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According to police, they were not aware of any previous threats against Jumalon’s life. Captain Deore Ragonio, police chief in Calamba municipality, said they were investigating a motive for the killing. The shooter reportedly stole Jumalon’s gold necklace before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle with a companion who had been waiting outside, police said, according to The Guardian. Although the shooter was not seen on the Facebook livestream, police said they were checking if security cameras installed in the house and at his neighbors recorded anything. On Monday, police released a sketch of the suspect, a man they say is over the age of 40 and was wearing a red cap with a green shirt and black short pants.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. strongly condemned the shooting and said he ordered the national police to track down, arrest and prosecute the killers. In a statement, he shared, “Attacks on journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy and those who threaten the freedom of the press will face the full consequences of their actions.”

The Philippines is considered to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. The country ranks eighth on the Committee to Protect Journalists‘ new “impunity index,” which spotlights countries with the worst records for prosecuting killers of journalists. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a press freedom watchdog, Jumulon was the 199th journalist to be killed in the Philippines since 1986, the year when democracy returned after a “People Power” uprising toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and forced him and his family into exile in the US. The watchdog said “the attack is even more condemnable since it happenedat Jumalon’s own home, which also served as the radio station.”

Jumalon is also the fourth member of the press to be killed since Marcos, the son of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, took office in June 2022. The attack comes just months after radio host Cris Bundoquin was shot and killed in the city of Calapan by two assailants on a motorcycle. In October 2022, radio commentator Percival Mabasa was fatally shot by two men on a motorcycle in suburban Las Pinas City.