CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/11 February) — Vowing to see it through, the local TV crew of GMA Network filed before the City Prosecutor’s Office on Friday a complaint for grave threats against a councilor of Barangay Tuburan who allegedly threatened to hack them.
Nef Abdul Malik Luczon, field reporter and “Ang Isyu Karon” host of GMA 12 Cagayan de Oro, said they will also file an administrative case against village councilman Roy Obsioma Yañez at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“If it is hard to hold the higher echelons of the local government accountable, then we’ll start with their lower ranks,” Luczon said.
On February 1, Yañez allegedly threatened to hack Luczon, and his camera crew Michael Tolang and Michael Cabulay while the latter were trying to interview what they thought then was the barangay chair Loresa Gaupan.
“When we had a meeting with the tribes, we learned that this Loresa Gaupan was not the barangay chair of Tuburan. She is the daughter of the real barangay chair Carnacion Obsioma Yañez, who happens to be the mother of respondent Roy Obsioma Yañez,” Luczon said.
The local TV crew of GMA 12 tried to seek the explanation of barangay officials on a floating quarry they discovered while filming an episode on the destruction Sendong wrought in the upland barangay Tuburan.
The Higaonon clan of Datu Limbobongan hosted the TV crew’s visit.
“I personally heard the threats issued by Yañez to Luczon and his team, saying ‘Panghawa mo diha! Laparohon ta hinuon mo og burak’ (Leave or I will slap you with a machete),” Peldo Villaverde, one of the Higaonon who witnessed the incident stated in his affidavit. (Cong Corrales/MindaNews)