Mindanao journalists decry harassment by MILF rebels

COTABATO CITY - Forty-nine journalists from all over Mindanao have passed a strongly worded manifesto challenging Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chieftain Hashim Salamat to prove his worth as a religious leader by punishing his men who harassed and took valuables of reporters who covered the recent hostilities in Maguindanao.

In the manifesto, the journalists urged Salamat to prove that the MILF is indeed "pro-people" by working out the immediate return of their valuables which MILF rebels took at gunpoint in Talayan, Maguindanao early this week.

This writer, Today correspondent Malu Cadeliña-Manas, also a reporter of Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp. (NDBC) here, an ABS-CBN crew composed of reporters Mary Anne Uy, Obet Espinosa and Erwin Tulfo of TV Patrol were harassed in separate incidents at the height of the Army-MILF hostilities along the Isulan-Cotabato Highway.

"We condemn these attacks, perpetrated in a manner that exemplified banditry, by elements of the supposedly religious MILF," the manifesto states.

The reporters were flagged down by MILF rebels who blockaded strategic stretches of the highway, divested them of their belongings at gunpoint and threatened to shoot them.

The rebels took this writer's camera and impounded the broadcast van of NDBC radio station dxMS. The van was returned the following day after Maguin-danao Gov. Zacaria Candao intervened, but its communication equipment, including a high-frequency two-way radio, and spare tires were missing.

The rebels who harassed the ABS-CBN reporters did not just threaten to harm them but also made fun of them by letting them "kiss the ground" at gunpoint.

Worse, the MILF guerrillas were also reported to have threatened to take Uy to their camp to rape her. The gunmen took her sunglasses before allowing them to leave.

"These atrocities, pulled off mercilessly, constituted an affront to media," the reporters said.

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for military affairs, earlier said they would have the incidents investigated, giving assurance they would retrieve and return the reporters' valuables.