Ces Drilon bares threats, NUJP urges other journalists to do so

After doing a critical report on a lawyer for the Ampatuans, ABS-CBN journalist Ces Oreña-Drilon has received a series of threatening text messages, which she has chosen to make public. 

 

It's a move that the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines encourages other journalists to make. "Very often, publicizing threats makes the cowards responsible — and yes, they are by and large cowards — back off," the NUJP said.

 

In a tweet she posted last Saturday, Drilon said she received a text message from a person using the mobile number +639981715664 who initially posed as Drilon’s informant on her story on lawyer Arnel Manaloto, a lawyer of prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr.

 

"Here dis is my new no pwde b tayo kita bulacan ces?," read the text message sent on July 27.

 

When Drilon refused to respond, the sender, in another text message on July 29, said: "SUNOD KANA SUMABOG DI AKO TIGIL HANGGANG DI KA NAGBAYAD SA GINAWA MO!"

 

The fresh threats came on the heels of a text message sent to her on July 24 minutes after airing a story on Manaloto's tax evasion case and how he could be a dummy owner of eight properties of Andal Jr in Davao City.

 

Sought for comment, lead defense counsel Sigfird Fortun told GMA News Online in a text message: "I do not know anything about those assets or the transfer to Manaloto. I have no dealing with the Ampatuans on properties."

 

In an interview with the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Drilon said she posted the text threats for her own protection and "as insurance in case (the sender) made good on his threat.”

 

In a separate tweet last Monday, Drilon said: “If anything happens to me, this lawyer (Manaloto) is responsible. It is irrefutable.”

 

NUJP statement

 

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines had earlier denounced the threats and urged Drilon's TV network to "undertake measures to ensure her safety."

 

"Without ascribing any responsibility, the nature of her report and the fact that the message was sent to her personal mobile number indicates it was likely meant to intimidate her into backing off from the story she had been pursuing," the NUJP said.

 

Also, the NUJP urged media outfits "to ensure the safety and security of their employees as well as provide them with the training to do so."

 

But it also challenged the government to "fulfill its mandate to protect the lives and liberties, not just of journalists, but of all citizens, by putting an end to the impunity with which human rights are violated in this country, starting with solving the extrajudicial killings and other abuses inflicted on media workers, activists, clergy, indigenous people, lawyers and others for deigning to exercise what the Constitution guarantees all of us, our right to free expression."

 

Considered the worst single-day election-related violence in Philippine history, the Maguindanao massacre claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 journalists, who were part of a convoy that was supposed to register an Ampatuan rival in the gubernatorial race for the 2010 automated polls.

 

Manaloto tax evasion case

 

In November last year, Manaloto was charged for his alleged failure to supply correct and accurate information in his income tax return and failure to file value-added tax for 2011. 

 

Based on the investigation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Manaloto declared a total income of only P1.495 million in 2011, but was able to acquire a total of eight real estate properties in Davao City.

 

The BIR said Manaloto's underdeclaration of his income was a "deliberate ploy to avoid having to register as a VAT taxpayer."

 

According to the BIR, Manaloto earned P37.97 million in revenues in 2011, but failed to pay the corresponding VAT or register as a VAT taxpayer.

 

The BIR computed Manaloto’s deficiency income and VAT liability at P27.56 million for 2011, including surcharge and interest. —KG, GMA News