DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has criticized the military in southern Mindanao for allegedly harassing the staff of a radio station in Tagum City and branding the station as procommunist.
Jeffrey Tupas, NUJP Davao chapter secretary general, said in a statement that the cases of harassment against the staff of Radyo ni Juan (RnJ) Tagum City 100.7 FM were not isolated.
He said on March 28, Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command, “denied a phone interview with RnJ-Tagum news director Ailene Manipol on the evacuation of members of the Manobo tribe in Talaingod town due to military operations.”
“Paniza’s recorded response blasted the station as biased and favoring the New People’s Army (NPA),” Tupas said.
He said Paniza told the staff to just interview National Democratic Front spokesperson Jorge Madlos “because he is your customer.”
“I don’t want to be interviewed because you are biased. We’ve been monitoring your station,” Tupas quoted Paniza as allegedly saying.
Paniza hanged up after this, he said.
In a text message to the Inquirer on Tuesday, Paniza did not deny hanging up the phone on a staffer of the station on that day.
He said the reason he did so was because he was asked what could probably be the NPA’s activities during its anniversary.
“I told them it was better to ask the NPA and not me because I would not know what they were up to,” Paniza said.
But a recording of the interview with Paniza showed that he was asked about the evacuees, not the NPA.
Paniza also denied branding the station as pro-NPA. “Nope, I did not red tag them,” Paniza added.
Tupas said the harassment that RnJ reporters went through for reporting on the evacuation in Talaingod continued on the ground.
He said on April 8, RnJ reporters Jojo Gales and Erwin Batucan were held for at least 40 minutes at the intelligence section of the Davao del Norte police when they went there to gather police blotter reports.
Instead of allowing the reporters to get the reports, the two were led to the intelligence division where they were allegedly held and interrogated. They were allegedly repeatedly asked such “personal questions as their names, addresses, birthdates, educational background and previous work experiences.”
“Their answers were later written and given to a person they believed was the chief of the intelligence division,” he said. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao