Politics eyed in attack on FM station

BUTUAN CITY — Police are eyeing politics behind the attack on an affiliate FM radio station of the Manila Broadcasting Corp. (MBC) in Tandag, Surigao del Sur last Wednesday.

Two motorcycle-riding men fired at dyRF Radyo Natin Tandag at about 1:45 a.m., the third attack on the radio station since 2002. One of its hard-hitting commentators also survived an ambush last year.

This developed as the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) expressed alarm yesterday over the "increasing frequency with which mediamen are being killed."

The FFFJ, formed to address attacks on journalists and news organizations, was reacting to the recent gunslaying of Rowell Endrinal, a commentator of radio station dzRC-AM in Legazpi City and publisher of two local newspapers.

Surigao del Sur police probers suspect that politics motivated the attack on dyRF Radyo Natin Tandag, noting that its commentators have been known for their stinging criticisms against local politicians.

Even Arvin Malasa, the radio station’s manager and a commentator himself, believes so. In February last year, he was wounded in an ambush by two motorcycle-riding men.

The FM radio station was the subject of two other attacks in the past. In 2002, unidentified men shot its windows, and in April last year, two ski mask-wearing men barged in and poured muriatic acid on its equipment.

According to the FFFJ, Endrinal was the third broadcaster slain in the Bicol region since last year. The two others were John Belen Villanueva Jr., of radio station dzGB, also in Legazpi City, and Nelson Nadura, of dyMF in Masbate.

The FFFJ noted that Endrinal’s murder happened in the run-up to the national and local elections on May 10.

"The political season involves great risk for journalists, especially those in the countryside, as the heat of the electoral contest raises the level of violence in many areas of the Philippines," it said in a statement.

The FFFJ said it believes that a journalist’s killing "affects the whole media community" and "seriously damages" the country’s democracy.

"The killing of journalists for their work is the most direct form of assault on press freedom and the democracy that guarantees it," it added.

Endrinal’s assassination, according to the FFFJ, brought to 44 the number of Filipino journalists murdered since 1986, based on the database of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. No case has been successfully prosecuted since 1986, it said.

The seven journalists killed last year were Villanueva (April 28), Nadura (Dec. 2), Apolinario "Polly" Pobeda of Lucena City (May 17), Bonifacio Gregorio of Tarlac City (July 8), Noel Villarante of Sta. Cruz, Laguna (Aug. 19), Rico Ramirez of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur (Aug. 20) and Juan "Jun" Porras Pala Jr. of Davao City (Sept. 6).

The members of the FFFJ are the Center for Community Journalism and Development, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, Philippine Press Institute, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Philippine News.