MANILA, Philippines?Another writer and University of the Philippines professor has complained that suspected military men have been keeping watch over his home and threatening him.
Less than a week after a rookie agent was caught spying on the house of National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera, writer Jun Cruz Reyes Wednesday said unidentified men were also seen staking out his home in Bulacan in the late hours of Sept. 10 and Sept. 13.
In a statement, Reyes said some eight men aboard a white van kept watch outside his home in Sta. Elena, Hagonoy town on the night of Sept. 10.
Three days later, a black van was again parked near his home late at night.
Life in danger
?Kakaiba ang mga pangyayari sa buhay ko. Nanganganib ang buhay ko, may mga nagtatangka, gayong wala naman akong kagalit dahil ako?y isang manunulat at pintor lamang, bukod sa pagiging guro (Something different is happening in my life. My life is in danger, there are threats, although I have no enemies because I am just a writer and painter, aside from being a teacher),? he said.
Reyes is a multi-awarded writer. He has won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, National Book Awards and Catholic Mass Media Awards, among others.
Reyes and Lumbera were among the artists who protested Malacañang?s intervention in the conferment of this year?s choices of National Artists.
Cruz also recalled that an unidentified man in blue jeans approached him while he was having a snack at a convenience store inside the UP campus on Sept. 13 and took his photo without his consent.
Quiet life
?Tahimik akong mamamayan, walang kagalit, at wala ring ano mang record sa barangay man or pulis. (I am a quiet citizen, I have no quarrels with anyone, and I have no record for any offense with the barangay or the police.),? he said Wednesday.
Defense officials recently apologized to Lumbera, saying the spy collared by his subdivision?s guards was a student in a naval intelligence course.
But Cruz said strange threats have been hounding him for more than two years.
He said ?weird? things have been happening since 2006, when he received a text message from then municipal councilor Elmer Santos, telling him to stay away from Bulacan for a while.
The official said he had learned that Reyes?s name was allegedly included in the ?Order of Battle? of the Philippine Army in the region, which was then under the command of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
Visiting prof
Reyes was then a visiting professor at UP-Baguio.
In August 2007, unidentified men allegedly tried to enter his house in Bulacan but the plot was foiled by his dogs? barking, which woke up his neighbors.
Three months later, he learned a squad of armed men in fatigue uniforms visited a neighbor and asked about him. Reyes said his neighbor was offered P20,000 by the suspects in exchange of information on his whereabouts.
Reyes could only surmise that he was being placed under surveillance by unidentified men simply because of his expressed political views.
Activists in Bulacan and other provinces in Central Luzon have been killed or have disappeared, among them, Jonas Burgos, the son of press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr.
