INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY — Tension rose at 9:20 p.m. Monday when followers of Apollo Quiboloy began to mob the Davao media covering the police operation near the gate of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) compound in this city for the arrest of the fugitive pastor wanted for child abuse, sexual abuse, and human trafficking charges.
The brush was triggered when Newsline publisher Edith Caduaya crossed the police line to request the police officer to allow reporters of TV5, UNTV, and a cameraman to pass through the line as they were going home and their vehicles were parked just behind the line.
READ: Abalos: Davao court didn’t order PNP to stop raid at Quiboloy place
Traffic along the road leading to the KJC compound briefly resumed hours after police dispersed the KJC crowd at 3 p.m. and cleared the road of the barricade that blocked all traffic in the area since Sunday night.
But at 5 p.m., the dispersed KJC members regrouped around 300 meters from the Jose Maria College gate; and at 7 p.m., when vehicle traffic was almost normal, the KJC crowd diverted the attention of the police and boarded some vehicles and went back to their old position at the JMC gate. This prompted the anti-riot policemen to seal the highway again.
So about past 9 p.m., when protesting KJC members saw that the police allowed the three journalists to pass through the line but prevented at least five of their companions from joining, they shouted, “bayaran na!” “biased media, bayaran (paid).”
After accompanying the three journalists, Caduaya went back to the police line and was heckled by KJC protesters. She faced her hecklers to explain that she was only helping the three journalists to pass through because their vehicles were just behind the line.
While the heated exchange between Caduaya and the KJC crowd went on, PTV 4 driver Arnel Rebayla drove the PTV 4 pickup towards the sealed police line, thinking they were already allowed to pass through.
READ: PNP not leaving KJC Compound until Quiboloy’s arrest
The Newsline pickup, driven by Caduaya’s daughter Thea followed, as she thought it was the signal to pick up her mother. The sight of the two media vehicles trying to pass the police line further angered the KJC members, who stopped the pickup, shouting “atras, atras (back off)!” “biased media.” A man in black was caught in the video throwing bottled water at the retreating vehicles.
Seeing this, the remaining journalists from PTV4, Mindanews, and Philippine Daily Inquirer started walking out of the area and were shooed by the KJC crowd, who kept shouting, “mga bayaran (paid hacks),” “biased media,” “wala mo’y ikatabang, hawa mo diri (you’re not helping us, leave).”
At one point, someone from the hostile group grabbed the press card of Newsline cameraman Eugene Dango and seeing he was with Newsline, told his companions, “Biased media ni (This is a biased media, the one who shot the video during the dispersal).” The angry mob was about to close in on Dango but was prevented by a man in a green shirt, who tried to mediate between the angry mob and the retreating journalists.
Not the first time
It was not the first time that the KJC mob accosted and berated journalists covering the operation to arrest Quiboloy.
On Sunday, the second day of police operation, a woman KJC member berated Brylle Montalvo, a reporter for TV5, saying her coverage was biased and called her names.
Montalvo had endured the coverage under scorching sun the whole day on Saturday and had stayed up all night inside the TV5 vehicle stationed near the area when she was accosted by KJC members in the morning of Sunday, the second day of the coverage.
READ: Palace on Quiboloy’s arrest warrant: ‘The law must take its course’
Several broadcasters and cameramen, who also experienced being called names by angry Quiboloy supporters, vented their feelings on social media.
The Mindanao Independent Press Council Inc. issued a statement demanding that the KJC leadership take responsibility for the actions of its members, especially those who had “engaged in persistent harassment and intimidation of journalists.”
“Since June 10, members of KJC have subjected journalists covering (the police operation to arrest Quiboloy) to alarming levels of hostility and threats,” said the MIPC in a statement.
It said KJC members had repeatedly subjected journalists covering what was going on at the KJC to verbal abuse, name-calling, and disparaging remarks.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also issued an alert on the incident and urged both parties to “remain calm amid tense at times.” NUJP also reminded parties that the “media is not the enemy.”
“Attacking media workers will hurt individual practitioners but will not affect issues raised at these protests,” said the NUJP safety office as it called newsrooms and government on the national and local levels to “ensure media workers’ safety from unwarranted attacks as they were only there to cover.”
READ: Duterte slams human rights violations against Quiboloy, supporters