Manila: Philippine authorities have expressed alarm over the recent rash of killings targeting doctors in the provinces, as the Department of Justice ordered an investigation into the murders.

Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said the latest victim of violence against doctors was Dr George Repique, a 49-year-old doctor in Cavite.

“The Department of Health (DOH) extends its condolences to the family of the late Dr. George Repique Jr, formerly Provincial Health Officer of Cavite,” the health secretary said.

Repique was ambushed on July 11 while on his way home.

His personal chauffeur was injured in the leg from the attack.

Repique became Cavite Provincial Health Officer in 2010 and had been credited for initiating the partnership between the University of the Philippines Community Health and Development Programme and the Cavite government in 2013.

“We have lost yet another dedicated health worker and I am extremely saddened by the fact that Dr Repique was the fourth victim in a row after the still unresolved killings of doctors early this year,” Rosell-Ubial said.

“We ask our local governments to please protect our doctors and health workers! Help them so they can serve you better,” she said.

Just last March, Dr Dreyfus Perlas, a volunteer for Doctors to the Barrios who served as Municipal Health Officer in Sapad, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao, was killed by an assassin riding in a motorcycle.

In April, Dr Sajod Jaja Sinandoling of Cotabato City was also felled by a killer in a similar manner.

But the most brutal killing so far carried out against a government doctor was against an unnamed physician in the health department’s Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DOH-ARMM) unit.

The victim was killed by an assassin who slit the physician’s throat while his pregnant wife was forced to watch.

In response to the killings of doctors, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to closely examine the incidents and file cases against perpetrators.

The health department had earlier condemned the violence carried out against doctors and health workers who had endured being assigned to remote areas of the country.