Army troops hold 30 journalists for an hour at Maguindanao checkpoint

GUINDULUNGAN, Maguindanao, Philippines – Army troops held 30 journalists at a checkpoint for an hour in Maguindanao yesterday, and their platoon leader refused to talk with the Armed Forces spokesman in Quezon City to thresh out the matter.

When The STAR called up Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, the platoon leader said they have their orders, and that they will talk only with their superior officer.

“Ayaw namin kausapin kahit sino, may sinusunod kaming (We will not speak with anyone, we are following a) chain of command,” he said.

However, the platoon leader, a private first class, did not identify their superior officer, and did not elaborate on the “chain of command.”

The STAR later learned that the soldiers belonged to the Bravo company of the Army’s 46th Infantry Battalion based here.

The soldiers tried to bring the journalists to their headquarters, but the journalists refused to budge and the standoff lasted an hour.

The platoon leader said they had been waiting for the journalists since the night before and that orders to hold them came from higher ups.

The name tag on his uniform was covered by the strap of his M16 assault rifle.

During the standoff, a military mini-troop transport arrived with more heavily armed soldiers.

Their orders were to escort the journalists to their battalion headquarters, according to the soldiers.

“We do not know and we do not understand why they have to stop us when they let all the other civilian vehicles, including buses, pass while we were held because allegedly we still need clearance before we will be allowed entry into the area,” Froilan Gallardo, chief photographer of MindaNews agency, said.

Gallardo said the journalists represented various media entities, with some coming from Metro Manila as well as different parts of Mindanao.

Brawner told The STAR the checkpoint incident was just a routine security check to prevent terrorist bombings.

“Security check daw yan because of the bombings yesterday (Monday) and the other day (Sunday),” he said, quoting Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, Army 6th Infantry Division spokesman based in Awang, Maguindanao.

Col. Medardo Geslani, Army 601st Infantry Brigade commander, told The STAR the journalists had to be held because of an ongoing clearing operation in the area.

At around 9 a.m., minutes after stopping a four-vehicle convoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross escorting seven truckloads of rice, the soldiers allowed the journalists to proceed to Datu Piang, where the ICRC trucks were also headed.

The soldiers asked one of the truck drivers if the food convoy had prior clearance from the military.

After brief questioning the ICRC and World Food Program convoy were allowed to pass through the checkpoint.

The journalists, along with members of non-government organizations engaged in humanitarian work and the promotion of peace in Mindanao, were stopped at a checkpoint in the Talayan-Cotabato highway in Barangay Bagan in the outskirts of Guindulungan town before 8 a.m. yesterday. They were on a nine-vehicle convoy traveling from Cotabato City to Datu Piang.

The journalists were on a three-day coverage on the plight of people displaced by fighting between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. – With Edith Regalado