Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Journalists with unlicensed guns to be arrested By Claudine C. Dumalag
ACTING police provincial director Mark Edison Belarma said journalists should not possess unlicensed guns amid proposals to arm media practitioners who receive threats.
Belarma advised all gun holders to obtain necessary licenses and permits to carry and transport firearms as soon as possible.
For those journalists whose lives are in imminent threat, Belarma said the Philippine National Police is willing to provide them security.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) - Negros earlier said since the 1970s until this year, they have documented 112 deaths of media men, most of which, occurred during the post-Martial Law period "when democracy was supposed to have been restored."
Belarma disclosed about 100 media personalities and members of the NUJP nationwide conducted a dialogue with the PNP in Camp Crame in the wake of the series of killings of mediamen.
PNP chief Dir. Gen. Edgardo Aglipay ordered all city and provincial directors all over the country to coordinate with the local media organizations in their respective areas to put a stop to the killings of journalists.
Belarma said Aglipay also ordered all policemen to team up with media entities.
"I am monitoring the activities of media groups in the province. We never received any threat against a certain media personality and I firmly believe we have a responsible media in Negros Occidental unlike in other areas in the country," Belarma said.
"If they have license but caught carrying firearms outside their homes without a Permit to Carry, I will recommend for the revocation of their license," Belarma warned journalists and gun holders.
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