Writers allege being spied on by Philippine military

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) allegedly placed under surveillance two renowned Filipino writers.

Bienvenido Lumbera, a National Artist for Literature and a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), is planning to file charges at the Commission of Human Rights of the Philippines against the AFP after a marine corporal was caught taking photos of his residence in Quezon City last 17 September.

The alleged spy, who was apprehended by security men of the gated community where Lumbera lives, was identified as a certain Marine Corporal Hannival Mondido Guerrero.

Navy Lt. Col Edgardo Arevalo confirmed that Guerrero was indeed a member of the armed forces and was conducting “information verification” as part of his “surveillance training” in the Naval Intelligence Training Institute. (The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported later that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Guerrero was not in the Navy’s master list.)

Arevalo also apologized. “We would like to apologize to Professor Lumbera for whatever inconvenience the incident caused him,” Arevalo was quoted by the Inquirer last 17 September.

But Lumbera told GMANews.TV he would still file charges against the AFP.

“I accept their apology, but I don’t necessarily believe the details they said,” Lumbera said last 18 September 2009.

As a result of the Lumbera incident, another writer reported that he has been under military surveillance since 2006.

During a 22 September 2009 press conference, UP professor and fiction writer Pedro “Jun” Cruz Reyes shared incidents in which the military allegedly surveilled him. He said the latest incidents happened in early September.

In an affidavit quoted by GMA-7’s primetime news program 24 oras, Reyes said that “Noong Septyembre 13, 2009…gawing ala-8 ng gabi..inilabas niya ang dalawa nilang cellphone at ginamit ang isa niyang cellphone para ako ay pagkukuhanan ng litrato (Last 13 September 2009, around 8 p.m., the man pulled out two mobile phones. He used one to take my picture [without permission]).”

As early as 2006, the online news magazine Bulatlat had reported that Reyes was in the Army’s order of battle in Bulacan, a province near Manila. In 2007, unidentified also men tried to enter his house, said Reyes.

At first, Reyes said he didn’t pay too much attention.  “I was busy with my doctoral degree at UP Diliman. I also got preoccupied with writing my dissertation for the said doctoral degree. But now, as time goes by, their surveillance and harassment of me is assuming a more definite form.”

Critical writers, journalists, and media organizations have been targets of surveillance by the AFP. In 2009, journalist Carlos Conde found that he had been included in a 2007 “order of battle” of the AFP 10th Infantry Division. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has also been tagged as an “enemy of the state” by the military.

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