FOR the first time in her 15-year-career as a broadcast journalist, TV5 Cebu’s Jinky Bargio received threatening messages in her mobile phone from unknown persons.
Bargio went to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 yesterday and filed a complaint, asking the agency to help her identify the senders of the text messages.
“I was a police beat reporter in Davao but I never encountered the same issue when I was there,” she said.
Bargio had a meeting with NBI 7 Director Antonio Pagatpat inside the latter’s office.
Pagatpat assigned two agents, Greg Algoso and Larry Dominguez, to conduct the inquiry.
He said tracing of the messages’ originator is “complicated.”
“The threats were channeled through phone,” he said.
A complaint for grave threats will be filed against the person upon identification by the investigators.
Last Tuesday afternoon, Bargio’s news item about drug pushers was aired in “Aksyon Bisaya” hosted by lawyers Frank Malilong, also a Sun.Star Cebu columnist, and Georgia Herrera.
Bargio said she did not name the drug pushers and officials receiving drug money. The names in the list were blurred in the video.
After the news program, she received three threatening messages. But she deleted them.
She further received two messages that were also reportedly threatening in nature.
The text messages were sent using different numbers.
She posted her text conversations with the unknown senders in her Facebook account.
Bargio said she may have angered the person because she interviewed Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol, who said he will conduct lifestyle check on the officials who are allegedly connected with the drug groups.
She started her career as radio reporter in Davao in 1998 and worked for different television networks, before landing a job in TV 5 Cebu.