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Monday, July 03, 2006
Gunmen torch anti-government radio station
TUGUEGARAO -- Gunmen forced staff out of a community radio station that often criticizes the military and burned it down in the town of Baggao in Cagayan Province on Sunday, police said.
Left-wing activists accused army troops of staging the pre-dawn attack, but a regional army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Leopoldo Galon Jr., denied the allegation.
At least eight masked gunmen staged the attack amid a wave of killings of left-wing activists and journalists that have been blamed on the military. Military officials have denied any role in the attacks and challenged anybody to produce evidence and file charges in court.
They barged into the building housing Radio Cagayano DWRC in the farming town of Baggao and herded seven staffers, including station manager Susan Mapa and technician Richard Remegio, out at gunpoint.
The perpetrators poured two bottles of "gasoline" around the radio station and set it on fire, police said. They seized the staffers' mobile phones and brought these with them when they fled, Cagayan police chief Senior Superintendent James Andres Melad said.
The gunmen left as flames consumed the building, leaving the staffers stunned, Melad said. Some of the staffers suffered minor injures.
The radio station, which is highly critical of the government and of the military, was totally razed by the fire. Damage to property was pegged at P1.5 million.
Partly funded by the left-wing political party Bayan Muna, the station opened last year and has been airing programs on agriculture and health. It is known for its stinging criticism of the military.
Opposition Representative Teodoro Casino of Bayan Muna said the military wanted to close the station because of its left-leaning stance and suspected soldiers may have carried out the attack. "The military is the only group with the motive to do that. It has really been incensed by the programs of that station," he said.
Galon acknowledged the army did not agree with the radio station's viewpoints but denied it had a role in the attack. "We do not condone acts like this. This is the work of hoodlums," Galon said.
Communist guerrillas are active in Cagayan, about 350 kilometers north of Manila. (AP/Sunnex/With VR)
(July 3, 2006 issue)
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