Media Groups Lambaste Increasing Media Repression in Negros Island

Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
November 11, 2002

The media community of Negros Island, central Philippines, decried the rising wave of media repression there, in light of two recent cases of alleged harassment of two local journalists by local government and military officials.

Along with other media groups, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said that local officials of Canlaon City in Negros Oriental and a group of military officers could be involved in the reported abduction of journalist Edmund Sestoso last October 23, 2002.

Sestoso is the chief of “The Visayas Daily Courier” news bureau in Bacolod City, Negros Oriental, and a commentator of local radio station DYSR.

The abduction of Sestoso occurred ten days after a correspondent of the same paper, Carl Vanzales, was allegedly harassed by military men and a rebel returnee last October 13.

Ronilo Cadigal, the rebel returnee, was implicated in both cases. Cadigal, whom NUJP National Chair Edgar Cadagat said has close ties with the ruling Cardenas clan in Canlaon City, implicated several persons in the assassination of former mayor and then vice-mayor Jose Cardenas.

The present mayor of the city, Judith Cardenas, was the wife of the slain Cardenas. Sestoso was brought to her after Cadigal and his group abducted Sestoso, NUJP alleged.

NUJP said in a press statement that Cadigal and three armed companions fetched Sestoso from his house in Dumaguete City, Negros Occidental on the pretense that Cadigal was going to have a press conference in nearby Sibuyan village. Instead of going to a press conference in Sibuyan however, Sestoso was brought to Mayor Cardenas in Canlaon City, about a hundred kilometers from Dumaguete.

Cardenas, Cadagat said, did not like the negative reports in Sestoso’s paper on the case the Cardenases had filed against the alleged killers of Jose Cardenas. Cadigal’s naming of several personalities as behind the killing of the former mayor was politically motivated, the NUJP alleged, since some of those personalities are political opponents of the Cardenases.

After meeting the mayor, Sestoso was reportedly brought to a government-owned pension house where he spent the night of October 23, and released a day later.

Ten days before the alleged abduction of Sestoso, two soldiers and Cadigal allegedly harassed Vanzales after the latter photographed them while in the government vehicle Cadigal and his group were illegally using in Canlaon City. Cadagat said the men on board the vehicle trailed Vanzales to the “Courier” office in Bacolod City and posted themselves in front of the office. Afraid for their safety, “Courier” staff members asked for police assistance.

The police, Cadagat said, arrested only one of the two soldiers. The other fled when asked to contact their officer. Later, during the investigation in the local precinct, Inspector Jonathan Lorilla, the head of the team that went to the “Courier” office, was repeatedly called several times in his cellular phone. After each call, Cadagat said, Lorilla would ask Vanzales and his “Courier” colleagues to drop their complaint against the two soldiers and instead settle it amicably.

According to Cadagat, Lorilla confiscated the IDs of the soldiers, but these were never shown to Vanzales and company. As of press time, the NUJP was still trying to determine the identities of the two soldiers.

Cadagat was quoted in the web-based news site “Bulatlat.com” as saying that the same soldiers were also after Vanzales because of his critical reports against Canlaon City government officials, including Cardenas.

“Bulatlat.com” also quoted a military official in Negros who denied that the two soldiers were in the active or past rosters of enlisted men, and who said that the incident “was a communist propaganda gimmick.”

Sesteso initially denied that he had been waylaid by Cadigal and his group, and said that he had only been “invited” by Cadigal. However, Cadagat said that Sestoso later admitted to him that it was an abduction. Sestoso also confirmed that there was “an element of abduction” when the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) interviewed him by phone last November 7. Sestoso, however, refused to give other details regarding the incident.

On the other hand, Cadigal, was quoted by the “Sun.Star Dumaguete” last October 30 as denying that he abducted Sestoso and that what took place was a meeting between him and the bureau chief.