Police rule out NPAs in attack on radio station

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna—Police have ruled out communist rebels as possible suspects in last Wednesday’s burning of a Church-run radio station in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro.

Senior Supt. Michael Baysa, the provincial police chief, said on Thursday that the New People’s Army was an “unlikely” suspect in the arson because, among others, witnesses told police the perpetrators were unarmed.

He also said no one has so far come forward to claim responsibility for the attack, which would be unusual if it was committed by the NPA since “communist groups would usually issue statements.”

A group of unidentified men set fire to the facilities of radio station dzVT in Barangay Labangan Poblacion in San Jose town at around 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

The fire damaged the station’s five-kilowatt AM transmitter, an FM transmitter, sound and engineering equipment, 10 desktop computers and two laptops, amounting to P10 million. The radio station is a member of the Catholic Media Network.

A program manager, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the case, said the radio station’s office in Barangay Labang was also set on fire.

The manager refused to give an interview until Bishop Antonio Palang of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose issues an official statement.

But in an earlier statement to media watchdog National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) the manager said the fire could have been politically-motivated.

“We cannot avoid hitting certain personalities. But residents here are pointing to only one politician as being behind this,” the program manager was quoted as saying in a statement from the NUJP.

Baysa said a caretaker of the radio station, who was in the building when the fire broke out, might be able to help them establish a lead that could point to the perpetrators.

NUJP condemned the attack and is set to visit the station in Occidental Mindoro to conduct its own investigation.