Oriental Mindoro cops 'harass' Manila-based radio reporter

Philippine National Police (PNP) Press Corp president and radio dzMM reporter Noel Alamar has claimed he was harassed and threatened by local policemen in his home province of Oriental Mindoro Thursday night.

Alamar and his wife Roselle Aquino, a Manila Times correspondent, went to Pola town to attend the first death anniversary of his mother, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), of which Alamar is a member. While in town, some villagers reportedly approached Alamar to tell him that Chief Inspector Telesforo Domingo, Pola town police chief, exercise partisanship. According to the NUJP, Alamar called the attention of Mimaropa Regional Police director Chief Superintendent Paul Mascariñas and Oriental Mindoro police head Senior Superintendent Sonny Ricablanca, who both agreed to look into the complaint against Domingo. The NUJP quoted Alamar as saying that Domingo, visibly under the influence of liquor, went to his house and asked him, "Sino ka ba (Who are you)?" and then left. That was Alamar and Domingo’s first meeting. On Thursday night, during a visit to the house of mayor-elect Leandro Panganiban, Alamar said he saw Domingo and other policemen carrying heavy firearms while in civilian clothing. Alamar took out his camera to videotape the group of policemen, but Domingo reportedly threatened to shoot him and snatched his camera from him, adding Domingo even threatened to file obstruction of justice charges against him. The tension only subsided when policemen from the provincial mobile group and outgoing mayor Alex Aranas arrived to intervene. In an interview with GMANews.TV, Domingo said they were in the house of Panganiban to issue an arrest warrant against his wife, Corazon Panganiban. Among the string of charges lodged against her were large-scale estafa and illegal recruitment. "Wala lang coordination between the Philippine National Police and Mr. Alamar [Mr. Alamar and the local police just failed to coordinate]," he said. The local police said the arrest warrants were no longer served due to the commotion. As to the accusation he and his colleagues were in civilian clothes while carrying high-powered firearms, Domingo said they no longer changed into their uniforms because they had to rush to the house fearing that the subject of the search warrant might escape. "We had to act immediately. Gabi kasi noon, mga 8:35 p.m. Isa pa, uncomfortable naman to be in uniform 24 hours [It was night time and it would be uncomfortable to be in police uniform for 24 hours]," he said. The Palo police chief belied seizing Alamar's camera, saying: "Nagkaroon lang ng commotion kaya nailaglag ko iyong camera." Domingo said the incident is already recorded on the police blotter, adding that he and Alamar had settled the matter. "Nag-usap na kami nang maayos. As much as possible, hindi na ko dapat mag-comment ng masyado dahil sabi namin na pag-uusapan na lang namin ito sa level namin," Domingo said. [We had already talked. As much as possible, we no longer want to make comments about the incident and we agreed to just keep it to ourselves.] Domingo, a native of Batangas, also belied claims of his partisanship to a local candidate. "Pinagbibigyan natin ng pagkakataon ang lahat ng [camp]. Ni hindi ako taga-rito [We treat everyone equally. I am not even a native of Oriental Mindoro]," he said. In 2008, reports said that Domingo was sacked as the town police chief of Victoria, also in Oriental Mindoro, after figuring in the shooting of a man in Mabini town in Batangas. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV