DOHA: While journalists around the world mourn the killing of 25 scribes in the Philippines, the tragedy came as too personal for this reporter.

Five of those killed were my buddies.

I have worked with them at various stages of my 20 years in newspaper career in the war-torn island of Mindanao in southern Philippines.

It was from Aquiles Zonio, a colleague and fellow correspondent of the Philipine Daily Inquirer based in General Santos City who survived the gruesome massacre, that I learned about the killings of my friends when his personal account was published in the online version of that paper.

It was indeed painful for me to read Zonio’s story when it mentioned the names of my very dear colleagues Jhoy Duhay, Maritess Cablitas and Nap Salaysay who were our correspondents in my long stint as editor of Mindanao Gold Star Daily.

I also knew Bong Reblando, senior reporter of Manila Bulletin and broadcaster Bart Maravilla of Bombo Radyo with whom I have exchanged jokes and shared experiences during media gatherings in Mindanao.

I am happy to learn that Zonio cheated what could be an undeserving death and never part of another long list of journalists killed in the Philippines now considered by International Federation of Journalists as the most dangerous place in the world for our work.

I have been frequently in touch with Zonio through e-mails, Facebook and Yahoogroups where Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondents all over the country were communicating about our sad plight and concerns vis-à-vis low pay and dangers of covering regions in Mindanao where it is saddled with decades long of insurgency war both from Muslim secessionists and communist rebels of the New People’s Army.

Among my five slain journalists friends I personally knew of, Duhay was more attached to me since I have helped him to learn about the intricacies of journalism work and even taught him basic news writing skills when he was still a neophyte.

Duhay has learnt to know the trade albeit in hard way because he doesn’t really have the skills to write but I was happy to learn in the later years when I left Gold Star Daily that he had become a fearless reporter that he agreed to be assigned in Maguindanao even if he is not a Muslim.

Covering the region was indeed risky but Duhay had been used to dealing with the always volatile situation. It was routine for him to jump on his motorcycle to get stories when hostilities broke out.The peninsula