Quezon female journalist into hiding over alleged military surveillance

 BAGUIO CITY – A female news reporter and columnist of Quezon province-based weekly newspaper Ang Diaryo Natin has reportedly gone into hiding after a group of still unidentified persons have been reportedly shadowing her since Monday.

Twenty-four-year-old Criselda Cabangon, said the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Media Safety Office in Manila coordinator Rowena Paraan, has left her house and is now staying with a friend after her neighbors sensed danger when strangers have been asking where she is.

“I could sense that the threat against my person is very real this time that’s why I decided to seek refuge elsewhere as I assess the situation,” she reportedly told an officer of the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in Lucena.

“This is blatant media harassment to intimidate me and other fellow provincial journalists,” Cabangon was quoted by Paraan of the IFJ Media office in Manila as saying.

The military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) based in Camp Nakar in Lucena has reportedly denied military spooks were after the lady journalist.

Army Major Randolph Cabangbang, Solcom spokesman has reportedly denied knowing the journalist and any plan to nab her.

The IFJ-Media Safety Office in Manila said Cabangon was a former student leader/campus journalist at the Enverga University in Lucena.

She is reportedly known for her fearless brand of journalism specially on issues concerning common people.

On Tuesday afternoon, Paraan said, Cabangon appeared before her colleagues still visibly shaken and wearing the same house dress since Monday.

Local press groups have reportedly taken into custody Cabangon to a safe but undisclosed place.   Artemio Dumlao