By Ronron
May 9, 2007
Two foreign journalists were barred from joining the interview of members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) with senatorial candidate and former Navy officer Lt. Sr. Grade Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday morning.
Douglas Bakshian of the Voice of America and Sebastian Farcis of the French International Radio were not allowed to attend the scheduled interview at Trillanes’ detention facility inside the Marine headquarters in Taguig City due to their failure to present a clearance from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Office, or J2.
Lt. Col. Luciardo Obeña, commander of the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) Headquarters Battalion, said there is a standing order from the AFP General Headquarters, requiring foreign nationals to seek a J2 clearance when entering any military establishments in the country.
PMC spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said the policy is meant to ensure that anybody who enters the camp has been background-checked and is therefore safe.
But Bakshian complained, saying that in past instances when he entered Camp Aguinaldo, the AFP main headquarters, and other camps in Sulu, he was not required to present such clearance.
“This is a new policy… This is the new Philippines,” Bakshian said, before leaving the camp at around 9:45 am or after waiting for 45 minutes.
The FOCAP advisory regarding the interview states that it was supposed to start at 9am.
Aside from Bakshian and Farcis, Filipino reporters, photographers and television crew from Reuters, Associated Press, NHK and Manila Shimbun were present to join the interview with Trillanes, who is running under the Genuine Opposition ticket.
“I’m here to do some work… We were just responding to the FOCAP notice,” Bakshian said.
Thus, instead of getting the J2 clearance, he and Farcis decided to leave the camp.
FOCAP President Manny Mogato of Reuters conceded to the policy since he was shown a black and white of that but said that the problem lies in the fact that the FOCAP was not informed ahead of such requirement.
Being a former defense reporter, Mogato acknowledged that indeed, foreign journalists have long entered military camps for coverage but were not required of the J2 clearance.
Told about this, Caculitan said this was so because the entry of foreign journalists was coordinated with the public information offices of the respective camps.
When the media arrived at the interview venue, there was another delay as another guard interrogated Wilson Flores, columnist for the Philippine Star and writer for a Hongkong-based magazine.
The guard suspected Flores, a Filipino-Chinese, for not being a Filipino national.
Flores was asked to present his identification card to prove his Filipino citizenship but could only show is FOCAP ID.
It took a copy of the Philippine Star that showed his photo, name and column for the guard to allow him to join the interview.
The interrogation happened while Trillanes was already seated, ready for the interview.
Trillanes got irked all the more when he learned about what happened to Bakshian and Farcis so he threatened Obena and the battalion’s executive officer, Maj. Bautista Provido, that he will ask the court to cite them in contempt.
“This (barring of the two foreign journalists) will only put you in more trouble… Tell your boss that I will file contempt charges against you both,” Trillanes told Provido at the start of the interview.
Trillanes claimed that when he was interviewed the past few days by foreign journalists from the Associated Press, Channel News Asia and Yomiuri Shimbun, no such requirement was asked of them.
Trillanes said it is frustrating to know that despite their rank, Obeña and Provido do know how to decided on simple matters.
“These are incompetent officers,” Trillanes said of the two.
He said he hopes that with the charging of contempt against the two officers, the military would learn to respect any court order./DMS
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