A BROADCAST journalist filed a complaint before police after he was allegedly harassed by the head of the City of Talisay Traffic Operation Development Authority (CT-Toda) last Tuesday.
Aram Gines, correspondent of Radio DyRF, claimed that Venerando Tecson, acting CT-TODA chief, threatened to kill him over reports that Talisay City council candidate Ma. Ludina Ceniza was arrested last Monday.
Gines told Sun.Star Cebu that last Tuesday, he was at City Hall to gather reports when he decided to visit the CT-Toda office.
While there, Gines mentioned to some people Ceniza’s arrest last Monday. Ceniza was arrested by operatives of the Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) 7 for alleged large-scale illegal recruitment. When he heard Gines, Tecson came out of his office and confronted him.
Tecson allegedly told Gines that journalists like him were falsely making reports about Ceniza’s arrest and said that the city councilor candidate was still free.
Mindanao
“Giingnan pa gyod ko niya nga kanyahay nga pamatyon ang mga reporter didto sa Mindanao kay mao ang magda sa gubot, mga balita pulos botbot (He said it’s no wonder journalists are killed in Mindanao for false reporting),” Gines said.
Gines tried to show Tecson newspaper reports he had with him to prove what he was saying, but the CT-Toda chief allegedly got angry and attempted to pull out something from his pocket.
Gines filed a complaint against the traffic official before the police on the same day.
Tecson, who was appointed to his post last year, is identified with the group of incumbent Talisay City Mayor Johnny De los Reyes.
Sun.Star Cebu visited Tecson at his office yesterday but the CT-Toda chief refused to be interviewed for “health reasons.”
Fr. Bob Edisa, radio DyRF station manager, said he plans to talk to Gines once he comes back from his trip to Ormoc next week.
Edisa said this is the first time he encountered such a complaint against Gines.
He said Gines, who has been their correspondent for Talisay City for years, has never encountered any problem in his beat.