Reporter sues cop chief for abuses

OLONGAPO CITY—A tabloid reporter sued this city’s police chief for allegedly threatening him during coverage of a hostage-taking situation here early this month.

Local reporters and officials of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines accompanied Randy Datu in filing the complaint for grave threats, grave oral defamation and grave coercion against the city police chief, Senior Supt. Christopher Tambungan, at the city prosecutor’s office on Monday.

The Inquirer repeatedly tried but failed to reach Tambungan for his reaction to Datu’s complaint.

But in an April 12 letter that he sent to the tabloid editor and publisher, Tambungan called Datu’s complaint for harassment as a “false accusation.”

Datu said while he and other reporters were covering the hostage-taking in Barangay West Bajac Bajac on April 3, he was “berated, shoved and hit at the back by [Tambungan].”

A policeman, Datu said, asked reporters to initiate communication with the hostage-taker, upon the hostage-taker’s request.

Obliging the policeman who requested help, Datu and other reporters entered the compound.

But Tambungan singled out Datu. When Datu told Tambungan that he was there to cover, Tambungan dismissed him and said, “You’re not needed here. Get out!”

Datu said Tambungan raised his fist as if to punch him, grabbed his shoulder and pushed him.

He said Tambungan pushed him out of the compound and hit him in the back. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon