Kalinga radiowoman gets death threats

BAGUIO CITY — A female broadcaster of a government-run radio station in Kalinga is now fearing for her life as she has been getting threatening messages via her cellular phone.

Hazel Gup-ay, 36, of Radyo ng Bayan dzRK in Tabuk, the capital town of Kalinga, said the text messages accused her of being biased in reporting the July 31 ambush of Bayan Muna provincial chairman Dr. Constancio Claver and his family.

The threatening messages, sent through two mobile phone numbers, criticized Gup-ay for supposedly favoring the Clavers, whom the texter tagged as having links with the New People’s Army (NPA).

For instance, one message berated Gup-ay for issuing negative comments on the police in relation to the Clavers’ ambush although she was supposedly mum on the killing of provincial environment and natural resources officer Joselyn Bugaring last Dec. 9.

Gup-ay recalled that she got a slew of text messages when she aired a message dismissing as an "unconvincing alibi" the statement of Kalinga deputy police director Hover Coyoy that police checkpoints failed to block the ambushers’ getaway vehicle because he did not have the phone numbers of those manning the roadblocks.

She said one message stated: "Huwag ka one-sided palagi kampi si Claver. Di mo alam na sila puwersa ng NPA or kasama ka? (Don’t be one-sided, always in favor of Claver. Don’t you know that they are NPA forces, or are you with them?)"

On the night of Aug. 6, Gup-ay said she got this text message: "Matay ka koman (Hope you die now)."

Gup-ay denied being biased in her afternoon radio program Kabarangay, saying she was just reporting the news on the ambush, which Claver survived but where his wife was killed.

She recalled that in her Aug. 1 program, Kalinga Gov. Dominador Belac went on air appealing to members of the Kalinga Medical Society not to close outpatient wards of government hospitals in protest of the attack on the Claver family.