Eight journalists covering the closure of the vice-mayor's farm in Palompon, Leyte were allegedly detained at a checkpoint after they refused to open their vehicle to personnel allegedly searching for eggs.
Journalists in Eastern Visayas expressed their alarm over the alleged detention of media practitioners in Palompon, Leyte following their coverage of a controversial issue surrounding the town’s top leaders.
At least eight media personnel were allegedly detained at a checkpoint in Palompon while on their way back to Tacloban City after interviewing Vice Mayor Ramon Oñate, whose farm was the subject of a cease-and-desist order issued by Mayor Myra Georgina Arevalo.
Arevalo and Oñate had been at loggerheads in past months over the operation of the DBSN Breeder Farm, which had been ordered to stop operations due to alleged non-compliance of environmental laws.
Egg search
The eight journalists said that upon their arrival at an environmental checkpoint, their van was immediately blocked by a steel barricade.
The persons manning the checkpoint ordered the van’s occupants to open the vehicle for them to search the vehicle for any eggs coming from the DBSN Farm.
When the mediamen refused, citing Philippine National Police (PNP) protocol that checkpoint personnel are limited to plain view searching, they were detained at the checkpoint for nearly an hour until the Palompon municipal police ordered their release.
The journalists have filed a blotter with the local police and are reportedly planning to file charges of illegal detention against Arevalo and other municipal employees.
The Palompon police also noted that the checkpoint’s sole purpose is to ensure that no eggs or any products from the farm in general gets out of the municipality, thus giving them no right to randomly check private vehicles.
Last February, another standoff occurred in the town when two closed vans carrying chicks on their way to the farm was blocked by a red-plate SUV allegedly sent by Arevalo, resulting in an hours-long traffic jam along the Maharlika Highway. (JKA)
Tags: #OpinYon8, #PalomponLeyte, #standoff, #illegaldetention