Mindanao reporter missing, others mauled in poll violence

A Mindanao-based journalist was reported missing and others were attacked and harassed in election-related incidents across the country shortly before the first automated elections on Monday. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Monday said Rolando Gono went missing since Sunday after reporting the mauling of a TV news crew by a governor and his followers. "Rolando Gono, a stringer for radio station Hot FM 106.3 in Cagayan de Oro City in southern Philippines and who also writes for the weekly 'Azilam Review' in the same city, sent an SMS message to colleague Rene Abris on 9 May asking for help as he had been accosted by men he did not know. Gono has not been heard of since then," the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)said in its website, citing information from the NUJP. SEAPA quoted Abris as saying he and Gono went to the police station in Catarman town in Camiguin Island to report the beating of TV-13 cable news crew Herbert Hugo Dumaguing and his son Hubert. The two allegedly suffered at the hands of Camiguin Gov. Jurdin Jesus “JJ" Romualdo and several of his men. "Herbert and his son said they caught several local officials and campaign officers distributing envelopes containing cash to villagers. But before Hubert could shoot some video footage of the incident, the candidates and their men took notice and demanded that they stop taking footages. When they refused, the mob ganged up on the reporters," SEAPA said. The elder Dumaguing claimed the governor was among those who attacked them, with some of the governor’s men pointing pistols at the Dumaguings. Only the presence of bystanders kept the gunmen from shooting them, said Herbert who was, however, pistol-whipped. Also, their video camera, cell phones, key to their motor bike, crash helmet and sunglasses were confiscated. "The NUJP said police arrested one of the suspects. They also met with the governor but soon left without taking any action against him," the group said. Meanwhile, Abris said that after he had filed his report, Gono asked permission to return to Cagayan de Oro because his child had gotten sick. “A few minutes after he left, Gono sent an SMS message asking for help because he had been taken by people he did not know who were asking him who he was," NUJP quoted Abris as saying. He added that Gono also sent a text message to a friend in Catarman also asking for help. “But when I tried to call his phone, he was no longer answering," Abris said. The Dumaguings are now under the protection of the Catarman police, the NUJP said. Meanwhile, the NUJP lamented the “increasing harassment of journalists and the curtailment of their right to pursue their profession by political parties and candidates seeking office in the May 10 elections." Poll-related harassment vs media The NUJP has recorded some incidents of harassment against media people covering poll-related activities. The NUJP cited a story on GMANews.TV about journalists being barred from interviewing Nacionalista Party presidential bet Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. in Pasig City on May 5. It also reported that its chapter in Bulacan said organizers of a press conference of the Liberal Party barred reporters not wearing the yellow signature color of their presidential candidate, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, from covering the event last May 7. In Olongapo City, the NUJP chapter reported that Mayor James Gordon Jr. and his men berated photojournalist David Bayarong, who runs the online “Subic Times," and ejected him from a campaign rally of the mayor on May 4. According to the NUJP, Bayarong’s office was found burglarized the next day and his camera equipment stolen. A journalist from the Bicol region, Bobby Militante, was reportedly harassed on May 5 by police escorts of Catanduanes vice gubernatorial candidate Bong Tevez, the NUJP said.— LBG/VS, GMANews.TV