FWA-SF Condemns the Burning of BAYAN MUNA Radio station in Cagayan

FWA-SF Condemns the Burning of BAYAN MUNA Radio station in Cagayan

By Mario Santos

Los Angeles-- The Filipino Workers Association (FWA)vehemently condemn the latest fascist attack against progressive party list organization BAYAN MUNA and the peasant organiztion that maintains the radio station in Cagayan Valley, Northern Luzon.

The latest burning of the radio station in Baggao, Cagayan clearly shows that the local military and police authorities are involved or in cahoots with the roaming death squads that have victimized progressive leaders and activist like CPA leader, Markus Bangit, the BAYANN MUNA leaders Balauag Couple and other human rights victims in Cagayan valley.

Eight armed men reportedly fired at the station and set a community radio station identified with the left-wing Bayan Muna party list in Baggao, Cagayan on fire Sunday morning, reports from the provincial police said.

For sure, the police and the military will again blame the attack on the NPA just as they did over the killing of two media personages in Mindanao, the killing of Sotero Llamas in Bicol. They might as well say that the victims committed suicide and killed themselves just as General Palparan said he was happy that the activists in Bulacan "disappeared".

It appears that the military and police hatchetmen of PGMA does not have any qualm of conscience as they speak casually of these deaths and burning incidents and just gamefully blame the deaths to the victims.

We lament how the Arroyo-regime have sunk to the lowest level of hyporicsy and deceit while conducting a war of terrorism against unarmed civilians in the Philippines.

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Radio station in Cagayan torched


By Villamor Visaya
Inquirer
Last updated 05:25pm (Mla time) 07/02/2006


(2ND UPDATE) GAMU, Isabela - Eight armed men set a community radio station identified with the left-wing Bayan Muna party list in Baggao, Cagayan on fire Sunday morning, reports from the provincial police said.

Senior Supterintendent James Andres Melad, Cagayan police director, said radio station dwRC Radyo Cagayano in Barangay Centro was put up by the militant party list and the local government and had been operating for a month before Sunday’s attack.

Melad said the armed men went to the station at about 2 a.m., poured gasoline on the station's transmitter and booth, and then set these on fire.

"The radio station was totally razed," Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley region police director said in a text message.

Police estimated the damage at P2 million.

Before burning down the station, the armed men took the mobile phones of station manager Susan Mapa, technician Richard Remigio and four other staff members, Soriano said.

The six were able to flee to the nearby Saint Dominic Convent. They suffered bruises while escaping, Soriano said.

But an alert from the International Federation of Journalists-National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (IFJ-NUJP) Manila Safety Office said the arsonist “reportedly held at gunpoint, blindfolded and hogtied” Mapa and the other staffers it identified as Erik Ayudan, Arnold Agaraan, Armalyn Badua, Arlyn Areta, and Joy Marcos.

The suspects also apparently fired at the radio station while it was being burned. A burnt empty magazine and two empty shells, and two slugs of .45-caliber pistol were recovered from the scene, Soriano said.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said Bayan Muna party-list had no direct control over the radio station, which he said was supported by local peasant groups.

But he acknowledged, in a phone interview, that the station "has been critical of the military and government since it opened in May."

Melad confirmed this, saying the station was very critical of alleged abuses committed by the military in the Cagayan Valley.