NBI logo over a shot of the facade of its headquarters
MANILA, Philippines — The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is calling on law enforcement agencies not to coerce media personnel to sign drug inventories, after an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) got into a tiff with journalists covering an anti-drug operation.
The journalists were being asked to sign the inventory form of the illegal substances seized from two Chinese nationals as part of the customary procedures in a buy-bust conducted by agents of the NBI’s Task Force on Anti-Illegal Drugs along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City around 1 a.m. on Friday.
The reporters, however, refused to sign the documents, saying they only arrived at the scene after the operation, prompting an NBI agent to hurl insults at the reporters.
“It’s your obligation, you’re here. Be witnesses,” one of the NBI agents told the media present.
An NBI agent even pointed a finger at dzBB reporter Olan Bola. PTV reporter Noel Talacay was also harassed by an NBI agent.
But Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla stressed that journalists “have no duty to testify if you were really not part of it.”
“Members of the media should have been at the raid itself,” he told reporters on Friday.
The NBI has apologized for “the actions of some of our agents.”