Misamis journalist still missing after receiving threats

GINGOOG CITY, Misamis Oriental - A local journalist in this city who had been receiving death threats remains missing, his relatives claimed on Thursday. Emmanuel Ansihagan, a radio broadcaster for DXRS Radyo Natin and columnist of Caraga Times and Higaonon Tribal Datu, went to local police on Thursday last week to report he was being threatened to stop reporting about illegal logging activities in the province. Ansihagan has not returned home since, said his cousin Mark Ansihagan and uncle Datu Bayhon Ansihagan. Both said they had not received any word from Emmanuel even as Gingoog City Police head Senior Superintendent Roy Ga formed an investigating team to look into the threats against Ansihagan. One of the text messages sent to Ansihagan read: "Hununga imo pakigbisog batok logging ug mining basin baya mapareha ka sa mga gipangpatay nga tribal datu (Stop your struggle against logging and mining or end up like the other tribal leaders who were killed)." Ansihagan likewise claimed he sensed that he was being placed under surveillance and that somebody was following him. He told the police that he could no longer belittle the threats he had been getting daily after embarking on an anti-illegal logging and mining campaign. He added that he was forced to stop his radio commentary program “Barog Mindanao" due to the threats. Ansihagan said he took an anti-illegal logging stance after the local Department of Environment and natural Resources supposedly failed to stop illegal logging and mining activities in their ancestral lands. The Padrigao case and the slain relative Ansihagan also claimed the death of his DXRS colleague in 2008 made him fear for his life even more. Last Nov. 17, 2008, a motorcycle-riding gunman shot DXRS block timer Arecio Padrigao after bringing his daughter to school. In his broadcasts, Padrigao attacked city hall, the local government, the local police and the local DENR office for what he saw was a failure to catch illegal loggers. The Department of Justice’s Task Force 211, the body that investigates journalist killings, said in February 2009 that Padrigao’s gunman has been arrested and slapped with murder charges. But relatives and colleagues of the fallen radio man, including Ansihagan, believed the real attacker was still at large. Ansihagan’s relative was also killed on Christmas Eve last year. In the morning of Dec. 24, 2009, Datu Berting Pinagawa was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding gunmen at Sitio Muya, Barangay (village) Minalwang, Gingoog City. Prior to his death, Pinagawa headed an anti-illegal logging group and criticized local officials for allegedly coddling the illegal loggers. 'Worst place for journalists' In the international media community, the Philippines has gained notoriety over journalist killings. In the brutal massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last Nov. 23, 2009, most of the victims were journalists [32 as of last count], making the mass killings one of the deadliest single events for the press in memory and the Philippines the world's worst place to be a journalist, according to international press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Before the 32 journalists' deaths, the Philippines’ Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) recorded 74 journalist killings since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came into power in January 2001. - Ben Serrano/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV