Broadcaster mauled outside radio station in Iloilo City

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – Four men in hoods and facemasks beat and injured a broadcaster outside  a radio station in La Paz, Iloilo City on 8 October 2022. Iloilo City is 655 kilometers south of Manila.

DYRI RMN blocktimer Florencio Hervias had just exited the RMN building after his program when the assault happened. Blocktiming is a practice in the Philippine media in which “blocktimers” buy airtime from broadcast stations for their own programs.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Iloilo Chapter (NUJP-Iloilo) the men pretended to be garbage collectors but were apparently waiting for the broadcaster to come down. The suspects left Hervas with four facial injuries. The four fled the area aboard a vehicle.

Hervias said he has already reported the incident to the police. 

Hervias co-hosts the  program “Banwa Binagbinaga” (Town, Think About It) aired every Friday at 10 am.

In their October 8 program, Hervias and his co-host, Roy Cejar, called out an unnamed politician who had disagreed with  their  commentary on the ongoing construction of a public market in the city.  

Hervias said in an Inquirer report that their commentaries might have provoked the incident. The Inquirer quoted Hervias as saying that “with what is happening now, it shows that media practitioners aren’t well-protected, especially when they prick the feelings of onion-skinned public officials. They can do what they want.”

NUJP-Iloilo in a statement said that the incident showed how attacks against Filipino media workers “have become more brazen.” The organization called for the police to “act on its assurance of protecting journalists and upholding the freedom of the press by swiftly and decisively apprehending the assailants and all others involved and filing the appropriate charges,” and for “ media workers to “continue to stand together in defending the freedom of the press and standing by our sworn duty to hold power to account.”

The assault against Hervias came five days after veteran broadcaster Percy Lapid was killed in Las Piñas on October 3.