Joel Palacios, 70

Photo from Joel Palacios’ Facebook account

VETERAN JOURNALIST Joel Palacios died Tuesday, August 29, one of the five fatalities in a stabbing incident in Pasay City. He was 70.

A seasoned journalist, Palacios worked for different newspapers which include the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Manila Bulletin, Manila Standard, Today and Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.  He was also a Philippine correspondent of Reuters.

Palacios was one of the victims of Robert Garan who ran amuck, stabbing people in Central Park Condominium on D. Jorge Street, Pasay City. According to Mae Elorde, sister of Palacios’ live-in partner Belle Elorde, Palacios was in the condominium’s hallway on the sixteenth floor when the assailant attacked him. Palacios was immediately brought to the nearby Pasay General Hospital but was declared dead on arrival. Garan was shot and killed by the SWAT team that responded. (“Ex-journalist Joel Palacios stabbed dead; 3 others wounded,” Inquirer)

Besides his work in the media, Palacios also headed the press office of the US Embassy in Manila from 1992 to 1996, and served as spokesperson and vice president for media affairs of the Social Security System for fifteen years until his retirement in 2012. Palacios also taught journalism at the Pamantasang Lungsod ng Maynila and was an associate dean of Universidad de Manila’s College of Mass Communication. (“Veteran journalist Joel Palacios among those killed in Pasay condo stabbing,” Rappler)