MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 6, 2008) – The Philippine Army has ordered an investigation into a controversial officer accused of berating a journalist covering a fire that razed an ammo dump inside a military base in Mindanao.
Lt. Col. John Oswald Bucu, camp commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao province, berated Loreto Rosario, of the Catholic radio station dxMS in Cotabato City, while reporting about an ammo dump which exploded October 31.
The officer also seized Rosario’s cellular phones and brought him at the camp’s public information office where Bucu continued to lambaste the journalist in front of soldiers.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, the army division spokesman, who knew Rosario, has already apologized to the journalist, but Bucu remains defiant despite mounting calls from media groups for the military to discipline the officer.
Other journalists covering the fire were also prevented from getting near the ammo dump even after the blaze was over. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has already demanded the military to discipline Bucu. His superiors have ignored these calls.
Bucu accused Rosario of intruding inside the camp and said that if not for him, soldiers could have shot the journalist, who has been covering the military the past years, reports said.
Journalists in Cotabato City have already boycotted coverage of the army division headquarters and demanded that relief of Bucu.
”The NUJP is demanding that the AFP impose strong sanctions against Bucu for his clear assault on press freedom,” the media organization said in a statement.
Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, 6th Infantry Division commander, has not responded to the NUJP demand, but journalists vowed to bring this to the attention of Defense Secy. Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine Army Chief Gen. Victor Ibrado.
Ibrado has already ordered an investigation into the NUJP complaints against Bucu, according to Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, the Philippine Army spokesman.
“General Victor Ibrado has already ordered General (Raymundo) Ferrer to conduct an investigation on the matter,” Brawner told the Mindanao Examiner. Brawner said the embattled army officer insisted he was just protecting Rosario who was trying to get near the burning ammo dump.
Both Ferrer and Bucu are currently in Manila because of the ongoing investigations into the fire that destroyed the ammo dump.
The NUJP said Rosario’s case was not the first time that Bucu has targeted journalists. Two years ago, at a gathering of reporters at the headquarters of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade in North Cotabato, Bucu allegedly branded NUJP Kidapawan chapter president Malu Manar a member of the communist rebel group New People’s Army.
Manar is also the program director of the Catholic radio station dxND in North Cotabato.
“We understand Ando has apologized for the incident, which speaks well of Ando but highlights the utter arrogance of Bucu. The only conclusion we can draw is that Bucu thinks he can get away with what he did, just as many of the brains behind the scores of unsolved media murders do. Even more disturbing, however, he is clear proof of the culture of impunity that has thrived in this country because of official inaction, even apathy, towards continued attacks on media.”
“Indeed, we would not be surprised if Bucu had taken his cue to harass Rosario or, earlier, to publicly slander Manar, from this government’s actual attempts to muzzle the independent Philippine press, as we saw in the short-lived state of emergency of February 2006 and the more recent arrest of journalists covering the Manila Peninsula incident last year. The AFP should impose on Bucu the sanctions he so richly deserves for his clear assault on press freedom. Failure to do so will only reinforce the perception that there is, at best, tacit official approval of attempts to silence the media,” an Asian Press report, quoting the NUJP, said Thursday. (Mindanao Examiner)
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