This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 21, July 3, 2006
Media groups expressed
outrage over the burning of a community radio station in Cagayan province, which
was blamed on soldiers of the 17th Infantry Battalion whose
detachment was only a kilometer away from the site. The National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the World Association of Community
Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) condemned the burning as an attack to press freedom
and the people’s right to communicate. NUJP spokesperson Jose
Torres, Jr. called on the Arroyo administration to find and punish the
perpetrators, even as he said their group claims government culpability on the
crime because of its inaction on other attacks on media. The station of dwRC 90.1 FM
Radyo Cagayano, located at the town proper of mountainous Baggao was burned by
eight armed men wearing ski masks at 2 a.m., Sunday. The suspects took the
cellphones of the station manager and five staff, whom they blindfolded and tied
up and forced out before setting the station on fire, using two gallons of
gasoline. At a press conference this
morning, dwRC station manager Susan Mapa, cried as she recalled how the armed
men wrapped her malong (blanket) around her head. She said some of the
suspects were in camouflage and combat boots and carried M-16 armalite rifles.
Mapa said she heard one of the suspects referred to their leader as “sir.” Mapa said the five other
radio station staff were injured as the suspects tied them up and forced them
down on the floor. The five were identified as: Arnold Agraan, Joy Marcos,
Richard Ayudan, Arlyn Arella, and Armalyn Baddua. She recounted that the six of
them ran toward the nearby parish convent as the station was set ablaze while
the suspects escaped. An estimated P1.5 million
worth of radio equipment were razed, and the personal belongings of the staff
worth P39,130. Mapa said that the police
investigators led by SP03 Jose Durwin found a magazine of a .45 handgun and two
spent bullets. “Gustong palabasin ng mga nanunog na nagtatago kami ng baril,”
she said. (The perpetrators wanted to make it appear that we were keeping guns
at the station.) Mapa questioned the delayed
reaction of the Philippine National Police (PNP), whose headquarters were only
300 meters away from the station. The police arrived at the convent at 5 a.m.,
three hours after the incident, and merely interviewed them. The investigators
went up to the site later at 9 a.m. Brig. Gen. Jaime Buenaflor,
civil relations chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has denied
the allegations in a radio interview. Bianca Miglioretto, vice
president of the Women’s International Network of Asia Pacific and an official
of the international network AMARC, said they will relay the news about the
station’s burning to their 3,000 member stations. The community radio is a
member of AMARC Asia Pacific. “Community radio is one way
of giving a voice to the voiceless..if this voice is taken away by burning the
people’s community radio station, it is a grave violation of their right to
communicate,” said Miglioretto. “We will start a campaign
of protest to pressure the Philippine government to give justice to the people
of Radyo Cagayano,” she added. Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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Burning of Community Radio Station Blamed on Soldiers, Condemned
as ‘Media Repression’
BY BULATLAT
Posted 2:05 p.m. July 3, 2006