Army colonel threatens Cotabato radio reporter on coverage

NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES.

Alert
November 3, 2008

An Army colonel threatened a radio reporter in Cotabato City who was covering the fire late last week that razed an ammunition dump in Camp Siongco, headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division, in Awang,Maguindanao.

NUJP chapters in central Mindanao reported that Col. John Oswald Bucu, commander of the 6th ID’s Headquarters Service Battalion, berated Loreto Rosario, reporter of radio station dxMS and member of the NUJP chapter in Cotabato City, calling him an “intruder.”

The officer also said if not for him, his men could have shot Rosario.

Not content, he confiscated the reporter’s press card and mobile phone then took him to the office of division spokesman Colonel Julieto Ando, where he continued to lambaste Rosario.
Reports say while Ando has apologized for Bucu’s behavior over dxMS 6th ID commander General Raymundo Ferrer and Bucu have remained silent on the matter.

The Cotabato City chapter of the NUJP has declared Bucu ‘persona non grata’ and demanded his personal apology. Its members have also agreed to boycott coverage of the division until Ferrer is replaced asdivision commander.

The NUJP national office is demanding that the AFP impose strong sanctions against Bucu for ‘his clear assault on press freedom,” as it noted this is not the first time the colonel has targeted journalists.

Two years ago, at a gathering of reporters at the headquarters of the Army’s 602nd Brigade in Carmen, North Cotabato, Bucu branded NUJP Kidapawan chapter president Malu Cadelina Manar, program director of Catholic station dxND in North Cotabato, a “member” of the New People’s Army.(IFJ-NUJP Media Safety Office)