Cameraman, radio volunteer mauled

Had the handgun of the reelectionist vice mayor of Ozamiz City not jammed, a television cameraman would have become another statistic in the long list of media-related killings in the country, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said in a statement on Monday.

Melito Opena, who works for a city government-produced program called “Ronda Balita” over a local cable TV channel, might have avoided being shot, allegedly by Vice Mayor Rolando Romero, but he suffered chest contusions after being mauled by one of the official’s aides, the NUJP said.

In General Santos City, a son of the reelectionist mayor of Glan town in Sarangani reportedly beat up a volunteer reporter of Radio Mindanao Network outside a polling precinct on Monday.

Arnel Bendan said he was standing outside a polling precinct in Glan when Victor James Yap, son of Mayor James Yap Sr., suddenly elbowed him for still unknown reasons. The politician’s son and three other men took turns in mauling him, Bendan said.

Rowena Paraan, NUJP chair, said Opena was with his reporter, Ellena Pelare, and anchor Danny Pilar when he was attacked at around 11 a.m. They were trying to interview Romero as he was alighting from his car in Barangay Dona Consuelo.

Romero is running against Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., father of incumbent Ozamiz Mayor Nova Princess Echavez, in the city’s mayoral race.

Opena started taking video footage of the vice mayor while Pilar was asking Romero some questions, Paraan said. Instead of replying, the vice mayor grabbed the microphone from Pilar and threw it to the sea, she said.

“Romero’s woman aide took by force Opena’s Canon 3CCD camera and smashed it immediately on the ground,” JB de Veza of the NUJP Mindanao Media Safety Office based in Cagayan de Oro City said in another report.

Quoting a report from the local chapter of NUJP, Deveza said Romero also confiscated Pelare’s Nikon D3000 digital camera and threatened other journalists, who had started running away from the area, against reporting on the incident.

The report said another Romero aide, who was armed with an M-16 rifle, assaulted Opena.

Romero could not be reached for comment but reelectionist Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos, one of the leaders of the Liberal Party in Misamis Occidental, blamed the Ronda Balita crew for the incident.

Ocampos said the crew had provoked Romero and the vice mayor only “defended himself.”

Paraan said the acts of the vice mayor and his aides “can never justify such a reaction.”

“Indeed, it was no mere assault. Had Romero’s weapon not misfired, it could have been another media killing,” she said. Kaiza Marie Nawal and Aquiles Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao