DAVAO CITY — Forty-eight hours after a flower shop personnel delivered three funeral wreaths to ABS-CBN office in Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City, no one came out to claim responsibility.
The Cagayan de Oro Police Office in a report published by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) urged the management of the television station to report the incident to the police so they can act on it.
The same report revealed that Maj. Evan Viñas, Cocpo spokesperson, said they are willing to conduct an investigation as soon as ABS-CBN reports the incident to the police. “This is a form of threat and we can investigate it,” he added.
Though the police are willing to investigate, an official of ABS-CBN who refused to be identified told Newsline “Because of the incident, we were to stay away from any mass protest, the employees agreed that our fight is about our job, the Lopezes have their own, that was made clear to us in the latest memorandum”.
The same source said, “We are employees of ABS-CBN until August 31 midnight, even the company union agreed with the employees not to join the protest because our fight is joblessness and no other, if may mag-rally sa labas ng mga stations namin, that is public place naman— they can do it but for an employee to join them- distancia kami kasi mahirap na, Aware naman kami sa mga pangyayari sa labs”.
Three wreaths were sent on July 25, Saturday just after a group held a noise-barrage outside the network’s gate. Written on the ribbons read “Ibalik ang ABS-CBN! Isulong ang digmaang bayan!”
Also written on the other ribbons were various organizations, namely, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), National Union of People’s Lawyers-Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, Bayan, Anakbayan, Kadamay, and the League of Filipino Students which were alleged as supporters of the Communist armed group New People’s Army.
“The wreath delivery appeared to be part of a coordinated red-tagging operation, with a fake Facebook account named Kim Chuy, which has regularly red-tagged people and organizations, posting a spoof of the poster announcing the noise barrage,” JB Deveza, NUJP media safety officer for Western Mindanao, in a statement said.-Newsline.ph
