Photojournalists, cameramen barred from covering hospital fire

CMFR/Philippines – A hospital official in Davao City ordered his staff to prevent TV cameramen and photojournalists from covering a fire last 22 May 2013.

Davao City is about 1,400 kilometers south of Metro Manila.

Photojournalist King Rodriguez of Sun.Star Davao told CMFR in a 23 May 2013 phone interview that he was taking photos of hospital staff handing out food to the patients who had been moved from the Department of Psychiatry of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) because of a fire when a security guard took hold of him while a hospital staff member confiscated his camera and deleted all the photos.

“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it,” Rodriguez said in vernacular. “I only found out later that other photographers and cameramen were also harassed.”

According to a Sun.Star Davao May 23 newspaper report, a certain Dr. Joseph Villanueva ordered hospital staff to delete all photos taken by photojournalists and to prevent cameramen from taking video footage.

Members of the press confronted Villanueva, the report said, but he refused to explain why he issued such orders.

“(Villanueva) didn’t say why (he did not want us to take photos), but I was sure not to photograph any of the patients’ faces. I was only getting their backs. Even if I did get a patient’s face, we would have been sure to blur it later,” Rodriguez told CMFR.

Robinson Niñal, Mindanao Daily Mirror photographer, was with Rodriguez when the incident also happened.

“Men wearing blue stood in our way. They got King’s camera but I would not let them get mine so I ran, but they still cornered me,” Niñal told CMFR in a phone interview. “’Delete All’ was what they wanted. They might have deleted photos I’ve taken of other events, some exclusive. How would I explain that at the office?”

Cameramen from ABS-CBN and TV5 covering the same fire were also harassed according to Sun.StarDavao. (Rodriguez identified the ABS-CBN cameraman as Dencio Ruego but Ruego was not immediately available for comment.) Rodriguez said that SPMC director Dr. Leopoldo Vega apologized for the incident during a press conference.

“I don’t think it happened drastically (sic). I don’t know how it happened. But, I will look for (the hospital staff involved) now. I will investigate this,” Sun.Star quoted Vega as saying.