TV reporter receives death threat

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – An unidentified man on a motorcycle threatened to kill a television reporter last 10 February 2009 in Roxas City, Capiz. Capiz is a province approximately 411 kms from Manila.

Harold Feliciano, a reporter and cameraman for local television company Filvision ALTO Cable TV, was on his motorcycle with his 5-year-old son when a motorcyclist in a ski mask swerved to their side and threatened to kill him within 24 hours. Feliciano had just fetched his son from school.

Feliciano works for Filvision’s public affairs program Abri-Aga (Appetizer in the Morning).

In a phone interview, Feliciano told the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) that he tried to catch up with the unidentified man but decided to go home as he feared for the life of his son. He reported the incident to the police afterward.

“His head was covered by a bonnet (sic) up to the nose, but I could see his mustache and beard. He had long hair. His motorcycle was black with shades of orange and had no plate number,” Feliciano told the local newspaper News Today last 17 February 2009.

CMFR tried to talk to the police officer assigned to the desk when the incident happened but Senior Police Officer 1 Rei Jesus Lariosa of the Roxas City Police Station said in a phone interview last 20 February 2009 that the officer who investigated Feliciano’s case was not available since they often changed shifts. But Lariosa said that Feliciano allegedly told him days after the incident that he could not tell what the motive was behind the threat.

“It might have been addressed indirectly to my boss (John Heredia, host and executive producer of Abri-aga)” Feliciano told CMFR in a 20 February 2009 phone interview.

Feliciano said in the News Today report: “I believe that the harassment stemmed back (sic) from the issues we tackle in our program, especially issues on mining and corruption in the government.”

Feliciano also said other staff members of Abri-Aga had been receiving threats through their mobile phones since last year.

In a phone interview with CMFR, Heredia said the officers of the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) have also received threats in connection with their campaign against journalist killings. Heredia is a member of the NUJP national directorate.

Among the cases being monitored by NUJP is that of Martin Roxas, a media practitioner from the same city.

Roxas, program director of dyVR-Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), was killed on 7 August 2008 by a gunman riding tandem on a motorcycle. He was the fourth journalist/media practitioner killed in the line of duty last year. Six journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2008.

CMFR has recorded 77 journalists killed in the line of duty since 1986. Thirty-nine journalists/media practitioners have been killed in the line of duty in the Philippines during the term of president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. #

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