Police claims shooting of journalist in Ifugao not media-related; task force to continue probe

The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) on Wednesday said they will continue the investigation into the shooting of journalist Brandon Lee in Ifugao despite police claims that the case is not media-related.

“…Official police reports and information gathered from local media showed that the attack could not have been related to media work,” PTFoMS said in a statement.

PTFoMS also found out that Lee is also an active member of the Ifugao Peasant Movement (IPM).

Citing reports from local media contacts and police officials in Ifugao, PTFoMS Executive Director and Undersecretary Jose Joel M. Sy Egco said that Lee is an American national permanently residing in the Philippines.

According to PTFoMS, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) in 2015 said Chinese-American Lee needs protection from the US government after he was accused, together with some IPM members and Ifugao human rights workers, of supporting the New People’s Army (NPA).

PTFoMS added a local group named Lee and five others as “accomplices of the terrorist NPA in Ifugao.”

“Despite findings that the attack could not have been related to media work, the PTFoMS will continue to monitor the progress of the investigation,” the media security task force said. —LDF, GMA News