Hit by six bullets in the chest and abdomen, he died instantly. The journalist Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy was attacked by an armed individual on the evening of October 30 at his home in Bansalan, Davao del Sur province, in the southern Philippine archipelago. His murderer first stopped him from the street to ask him to leave his apartment; after firing the first two shots, the assailant pursued his victim inside his home, where the journalist had taken refuge.
Reporter for the regional information portal Newsline Philippines, and presenter of a radio show Energy FM, Orlando Dinoy covered local news, focusing on development issues and news items, according to a statement issued by the editor of Newsline Philippines, Editha Z. Caduaya.
Savagery and premeditation
“The murder of Orlando Dinoy is all the more shocking as it was carried out with bloodthirsty savagery and, at the same time, obvious premeditation, notes the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific office, Daniel Bastard. In this context, it is decisive to identify as quickly as possible the clues allowing the culprits to be found and, in particular, the elements which may feed the hypothesis of an assassination in connection with the journalistic activities of the victim. ”
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), the national agency responsible for investigating such cases, said in a statement released on October 31 that “investigators [de la police] already have strong leads concerning the perpetrator of the murder ”. Contacted on November 2 by RSF, the PTFoMS could not say more about the preferred hypothesis.
If the presumption of an assassination in connection with his professional activity was validated, Orlando Dinoy would be the 21st journalist assassinated for his work since the arrival to power of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.
The Philippines currently ranks 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 Global Press Freedom Index.
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