Philippine court jails gunman of slain journalist

MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine court sentenced to life imprisonment an unemployed man it found guilty for the 2005 murder of a radio commentator on the southern island of Mindanao, a media watchdog said on Friday.

It was only the sixth conviction among nearly 100 cases of murdered Filipino journalists since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said.

On Tuesday, a local court found Muhammad "Madix" Maulana guilty of killing Edgar Amoro on February 2, 2005 in Pagadian City on the southern island of Mindanao, rejecting his alibi he was at a wedding party in another town.

"It's the fulfillment of my promise to my dad to find justice for his death," Edel Grace Amoro, the radio announcer's daughter, said in a statement on Friday.

"It serves as another breakthrough in the prosecution service's efficiency in handling media murder cases, notwithstanding the many challenges we face in the name of truth and justice."

Amoro, who was an eyewitness in the murder of another radio reporter in Pagadian City in May 2002, was walking home from a public high school where he was teaching when Maulana and two other men shot him several times.

Police said Amoro was targeted because he had identified the gunman in the killing of the radio reporter. The gunman in that 2002 killing, a police officer, was found guilty in November 2005 and was given a life sentence. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has listed the Philippines as among the world's most dangerous places for journalists due to many unresolved murders since 1998.

Local media groups said about 100 journalists have been killed since 2001, including 30 who were massacred in a southern town in November 2009. Only five of those cases have led to convictions, prior to the one this week in Mindanao.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Bill Tarrant)