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Foreign newsmen barred from Trillanes interview


Two foreign journalists walked out of the Philippine Marines headquarters in Taguig City Wednesday morning after they were barred from joining other media practitioners in interviewing jailed senatorial candidate and former Navy officer Antonio Trillanes IV. Douglas Bakshian of the Voice of America and Sebastian Facris of the French International Radio angrily left the said military camp at 9:45 a.m. after they were required to show a clearance from the J2 or deputy chief of staff for intelligence of the Armed Forces. "This is a new policy. We were just responding to the Focap (Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines) notice," Bakshian said. The scheduled interview with Trillanes was arranged by Focap. Focap president Manny Mogato of Reuters said he was shown by Marine headquarters battalion commander Lt. Col. Luciardo Obeña the policy barring foreign nationals from entering military camps in the Philippines unless cleared by the AFP J2 office in Camp Aguinaldo. The foreign journalists, however, refused to talk to Obeña. "I'm here to do some work. Well, this is the new Philippines," Bakshian lamented, adding that he never experienced this rejection when he went to military camps in Sulu and in Camp Aguinaldo before. Mogato said they can’t do anything because it’s a policy. "The only problem is we were not informed ahead of this. And we have been covering the military for many years already." Trillanes has been granting interviews from his detention cell after a local court allowed him access to media for his campaign. Trillanes is seeking a Senate seat under the banner of the Genuine Opposition. - GMANews.TV

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