Newsmen covering Manila Peninsula Hotel takeover handcuffed and taken to police station

By Ronron
November 29, 2007

Police had taken into custody members of the media who covered Thursday’s takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and other Magdalo soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

The members of the media were handcuffed, taken in batches, and boarded on buses that took them to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) headquarters in Bicutan, Taguig City.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said they have to invite the media because they received reports that there were Magdalo members who pretended to be members of the media.

“It will be a chaotic process if we do the processing at the lobby of the hotel. So we decided to take them to Bicutan to establish who are legitimate members of the media and who are not,” Razon said in Filipino.

The PNP chief admitted they also confiscated some video cameras from newsmen as part of identification process. But he said they will return this if they find nothing irregular in it.

Razon explained the operatives on the ground had to handcuff the newsmen because they do not know which ones are legitimate and which ones are not.

Doing this will prevent any possible violence that could erupt from non-legitimate ones, like grabbing gun from the policemen, he said.

“I promise that once we have established who are legitimate members of the media, they will be freed,” Razon said./DMS