Why was the shooting of a reporter in San Pablo City, Laguna downgraded to an incident of "malicious mischief"?
That was the question the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) is now asking officials of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) as it asked the authorities to look deeper into a shooting incident that targeted a local reporter in San Pablo City, Laguna.
Marc Angelo Barrios, a reporter for Laguna Patrol, was ambushed by two unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen while he was on his way home in Barangay San Gregorio at around 11:00 in the evening of July 15.
Barrios was unhurt in the incident despite receiving seven shots from the suspects, who escaped after the incident.
In a statement, PTFoMS Executive Director Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez said they questioned the spot report of the San Pablo City chief of police, P/Lt. Col. Wilhelmino Saldivar Jr., that downgraded the incident to a mere “threat and malicious mischief.”
"To classify this incident as a simple case of malicious mischief by the local police raises everyone’s eyebrows,” Gutierrez added.
In his letter to PBGen. Mathew Bacay, Director, Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management (DIDM), and CIDG chief P/MGen. Leo Francisco, the PTFoMS chief also noted that the local police also failed to identify Barrios as a member of the press but merely as an “office staff.”
“As the government’s official mechanism to address all violations on the right to life, liberty, and security of all members of the press, the ‘discrepancies’ we noted from the police report and the actual facts of the case as gathered, deserves deeper investigation and the suspects identified and arrested,” Gutierrez said.
(With report from PNA/OpinYon News Team)
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