LEFTIST rebels on Thursday tagged a high-ranking military official as the one responsible for the death threats allegedly sent by militia groups in Mindanao to scare off journalists assigned to cover the 47th anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Agusan del Norte.
The political arm of the CPP, the National Democratic Front accused Col. Isidro Purisima, commander of the AFP’s 402nd “Stingers” Brigade based in Butuan City, Surigao del Norte of using the Magahat Bagani paramilitary group to threaten journalists.
“By allowing criminal paramilitary groups to issue death threats against members of the press, Col. Purisima has made the mass media a veritable target of state terrorism,” said Jorge Madlos, alias Ka Oris, spokesman of the NDF in Mindanao.
“This is not only a grave affront to the integrity of the press, but an act in outright contempt of press freedom. It violates media people’s right to life and free expression as well as subvert their duty to inform the public, which is a tenet held inviolable even by the 1987 Constitution,” he said.
On Christmas Day, Bobby Tejero—leader of military-backed Magahat Bagani militia forces warned journalists that they could be ambushed on their way to cover the CPP’s celebration on Dec. 26.
Tejero said in a text message to media men that covering the CCP anniversary was an admission that they supported the communists and were thus the enemies of the Magahat Bagani.
Tejero and his brother Loloy and Garilo Laylo—members of the Magahat forces formed by the military to fight the communist insurgency—have been charged with murder in relation to the deaths of lumad school executive director Emerito Samarca and two other tribal leaders, Dionel Campos and Datu Bello Sinzo in Lianga, Surigao del Sur on Sept. 1 last year.
Madlos said that since Purisima took over the 402nd Brigade February of last year, “direct terror attacks against peasant and lumad communities in Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte have escalated.”
“Under his command, extra-judicial killings perpetrated by his troops and paramilitary groups have intensified, such as the Tabugol murders on August 28, the Han-ayan massacre on September 1 and the killings of two barangay captains,” he said.
Although warrants have been issued against the Tejero brothers and Laylo, no one has yet been arrested.
The killings, together with other acts of terror in Surigao del Sur and other neighboring provinces drove thousands of lumad from their homes to seek refuge in different relocation sites in Mindanao.
The military is being blamed for the acts of the militia groups, such as the Magahat Bagani—sowing terror in Surigao del Sur and other parts of Mindanao to ward off communist insurgency.
“With communities brutally terrorized, thousands have been displaced in the short time that he had held his post, such as those from the five towns of Surigao del Sur and from Agusan del Sur. And, reports have it that Purisima’s troops also raped a blind woman in Tago sometime in October,” Madlos said.
Madlos also accused Purisima of conspiring with state-run media Philippine Information Agency and the ANAD, a group allegedly ran by former Army General Jovito Palparan, to engineer an attack against the mass media, guests and the people to discourage them from attending the CPP celebration.
Despite these threats against journalists, however, Madlos said that journalists from parts of Mindanao and even as far as the Visayas were able to cover the CPP’s anniversary celebration.
Madlos said more than 5,000 people attended their anniversary celebration last Saturday.