Journalist's house attacked in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / December 22, 2009) – A Filipino journalist cheated death, but his father-in-law was wounded after a grenade attack at their family house in Mindanao, reports said.

Reports said an unidentified man tossed the grenade at the house of Daniel Pilar in the village of Taba-o in the town of Jimenez in Misamis Occidental province. The weekend attack was believed connected to his work as a television journalist.

ABS-CBN television reported that the journalist was feeding his chickens at the back of their house when the attack occurred.

Neptali Batolonio, chapter president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said the attack seems to be related to Pilar's work. The journalist hosts the news and public service program "Analysis" at a local cable television station.

"After talking to Danny, I believe this attack is politically motivated. I think this is the first time this has happened in our town. He did not receive a death threat before the attack. He was doing research on a politician and that person may have been tipped off about Danny's inquiries," Batolonio told ABS-CBN.

The NUJP condemned the attack, saying, the Pilar family is now in hiding after the incident.

Last month, gunmen brutally killed 57 people; at least 30 of them were journalists, accompanying an election caravan in Maguindanao province. Andal Ampatuan Jr., then mayor of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao, was accused of masterminding the attack on the convoy of his political rival. Several other clan members were arrested in connection to the killings. (Mindanao Examiner)