Local police chief harasses correspondent

A reporter covering a demolition along a national highway was allegedly harassed by a local police chief last 09 February in Malolos, Bulacan, around 40 kilometers north of Manila.

In a complaint forwarded to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), Dino Balabo, a reporter and a correspondent for local weekly Mabuhay and national paper The Manila Times, said Malolos City police chief Manuel Lucban accosted him by twisting two of his fingers.

Balabo was covering the demolition of shanties (illegal housing units) located between the North Railways system and McArthur Highway in the said city, when one of the members of the demolition team confronted the reporter and asked for his identification card (ID).

The journalist, in turn, also asked the man for ID. The man was identified as Ferdie Martin, as he relunctantly showed his ID, which identified him as a city employee. Martin then called the police.

Less than ten minutes later, Lucban and three other policemen arrived and saw Balabo taking pictures of Martin cutting the power lines of the shanties.

According to Balabo, Lucban approached him, asking if there was a problem. Balabo said his problem was Martin as he pointed his left index finger to the said worker. In response, Lucban allegedly held the reporter’s index and middle fingers and forced them to point in the direction of their owner.

In an interview with CMFR, Lucban denied grabbing Balabo’s fingers and twisting them. He however, admitted holding down the journalist’s hand, claiming that he wanted to ease the tension between the two men.

Lucban claimed he even tried to reconcile with Balabo two days later, but the journalist refused to shake his hand. Lucban said Balabo obviously wasn’t telling the truth about the incident, as the reporter refused to re-enact the exact incident in front of other journalists, during a meeting in a local restaurant.

The police officer even boasted of having gained the trust of journalists for telling the truth about the confrontation.

Balabo admitted he didn’t patch up with the police officer, because the latter accused him of “being a liar” in front of his colleagues and other patrons inside the said restaurant.

Meanwhile, Balabo’s colleagues said Lucban raised the tone of his voice during the “reconciliation” meeting, and repeatedly accused Balabo of fabricating his account of the incident. “He (Lucban) was obviously bluffing about the real incident,” said Carmela Reyes, a local correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, referring to the inconsistent statements of the police officer.

A day earlier, it was a different story when Rommel Ramos of Radio Veritas interviewed Lucban, who reluctantly confessed to holding Balabo’s fingers and apologized on air.

Lucban was assigned to Malolos last October. He was reportedly a former member of the Presidential Security Group.

Philippine Press Institute (PPI) executive director and Mabuhay publisher-editor Jose Pavia condemned the alleged harassment. “The mere holding of any physical parts of a civilian (a journalist, in the said incident), who doesn’t face any harm or violence is clearly harassment under the law,” Pavia retorted.

The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc., PPI, and Mabuhay, are considering filing complaints against Lucban at the Philippine National Police Headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.###

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