Media barred from coverage; colonel apologizes

CMFR/Philippines – Army troops prevented reporters and photographers from entering a refugee evacuation center in Guindulungan town, Maguindanao province, on 30 July 2013.

Maguindanao province in the island of Mindanao is some 1,600 kilometers south of Manila.

Freelance stringer Ferdinandh Cabrera, along with his colleagues and human rights monitoring teams, was on his way to an elementary school in Guindulungan town, Tuesday morning, to report on evacuees who fled from a nearby village after a clash broke out between government forces and the rebel group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. But Cabrera said they were barred at the highway.

“At first, I was OK. They said the area had not been cleared. But then they allowed another (non-governmental organization team) to go (to the area) while the rest of us weren’t,” Cabrera told CMFR in a phone interview last 7 August 2013.

“When we asked (why they wouldn’t let us enter the area but allowed one group to do so), they said it’s because we’re media. It was unfair and I found it unacceptable,” Cabrera added.

The media and other groups were able to enter the area about an hour after the “confrontation” according to Cabrera, but he still reported the incident to his colleagues.

On the day of the  July 30 incident, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the barring of the journalists, calling it  “arbitrary detention”.

“It seems the prevailing mindset that led to the (2009 Ampatuan town) massacre continues to exist in Maguindanao, where those with the guns continue to believe themselves the true rulers of the land,” the NUJP statement said.

The NUJP was referring to the 23 November 2009 massacre in which 58 people including 32 journalists and media workers were killed in the worst election-related incident of violence and attack on journalists in the Philippines in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao.

Three days later, however, Colonel Dickson Hermoso, spokesperson of the 6^th Infantry Division (also called Kampilan troop), apologized for the incident, according to Cabrera.

“Hermoso said that his comrades  did not understand the role of the media (in conflict-ridden) areas,” Cabrera said.

Hermoso told CMFR in a phone interview on 7 August 2013 that he did apologize for the behavior of the soldier Cabrera encountered, but denied any wrongdoing.

“It was all for the safety and security of everybody,” Hermoso said. “The first (non-governmental organization team) let through wasn’t headed to the same area as (Cabrera and the others). The area they went to was just adjacent to the (military) post (and not near the school).”

Hermoso said that he was working on educating his soldiers about the “media’s role” and teaching them to be more courteous next time. He added that in a meeting with the Kampilan News Core, they agreed to give members of the news core identification cards so soldiers could identify them and to draft a waiver form if a media worker insists on entering an unsecured area.