Tuesday, January 08, 2008 Print news reporter complains against city dad’s threats
A JOURNALIST fearing for his safety yesterday sought the help of police after he heard that a politician in Talisay City was out to get him.
Vincie L. Monterde, a reporter of Sun.Star Superbalita, identified City Councilor Dennis Basillote as the one who issued the threats against him.
But Basillote, council committee chairman on education, denied the charge.
The former barangay captain of Dumlog believed that it could be another political gimmick to put him in a bad light.
“Pulos pamolitika, wa man mi deperensya (I don’t have any quarrel with him so there’s no truth to that),” he said.
Monterde, president of the Talisay City Reporters Organization, ran for councilor of Lawaan 1 in this year’s barangay elections and lost.
He ran for barangay chief in 1997 also in Lawaan 1 but lost to the incumbent.
Monterde went to the Talisay City Police Station after three of Basillote’s colleagues in the City Council confirmed the matter over the weekend.
SPO3 Cleofas Bonjoc, the duty desk officer, took Monterde’s statement and recorded it in the police blotter around 11 a.m.
Quoting the three councilors, Monterde said Basillote angrily swore to run him over once he sees him on the street and slap him if they bump into each other.
Basillote allegedly made the vow in a meeting of majority bloc councilors and in the presence of Mayor Socrates Fernandez at City Hall last Thursday.
The councilors reportedly met to iron out a conflict.
“Everybody heard it,” said Councilor Shirley Belleza, in an interview over dyRF Radio Fuerza, confirming Basillote’s issued threats against Monterde.
Belleza said it is better that it should be patched up, believing that Basillote was only carried by his emotions during the meeting that he recalled his previous conflict with Monterde.
Basillote, for his part, dared Monterde to bring the matter before the court.
When told that three of his colleagues already confirmed the threat, he replied in Cebuano: “Let them testify.”
Monterde said he is consulting a lawyer for the possible filing of an administrative case against Basillote at the anti-graft office.
He also plans to bring this up before the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists, an association of beat reporters in Metro Cebu, headed by Elias Baquero.
Monterde said he never expected the legislator to harbor a grudge against him.
He suspected that it had something to do with his previous news stories involving Basillote’s bid for the vice mayoralty in 2004 where he lost.
Basillote was up against former vice mayor Aberdovey Belleza, who won as an independent.
Meanwhile, Daniel Guden, a reporter of radio dyRF, reported to the Talisay City Police Station the loss of his red Honda XRM motorcycle (YW-2492) last Friday.
Guden, also a TCRO official, said his brother-in-law Mario Orestes Ombing parked the motorcycle outside the Gaisano Grand Fiesta Mall around 10 a.m.
However, Ombing reportedly forgot to lock the motorcycle. When he returned, the motorcycle was gone. (GC)
