Gov’t to media: Follow
police orders or else…
Gonzalez: ‘Reminder’ not meant to muzzle newsmen
BY EVANGELINE DE
VERA
THE Department of Justice yesterday
issued an advisory to media practitioners to heed
government calls not to interfere in legitimate police
and military operations or face sanctions.
The advisory was issued more than a
month after the Manila Peninsula hotel incident wherein
about 50 media men covering the standoff, their hands
tied with plastic thongs, were hauled to the Metro
Manila police headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in
Bicutan, Taguig after the incident.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said
he issued the one-page advisory to serve as a formal
"reminder" to media men and press organizations. He said
it was not meant to send a chilling effect on the media.
IN a show of defiance, military
officers facing court martial for the supposed power grab
attempt in February 2006 yesterday refused to be brought
to the court in handcuffs.
The court martial proceedings were held
in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, where 26 of the 28
accused Army and Marines officers have been detained for
almost two years.
The court opened proceedings at around
10:30 a.m. and recessed for lunch about two hours later
after discussions on the absence of 24 of the accused
officers.
The PNP is looking into a possible breach of
police security by the investigating team of the Ayala Land Inc.
following the company’s statement that a foreign expert it hired
to look into the October explosion at the Glorietta 2 conducted
"swabbing" in nine areas of the blast site.
Ayala Land, owner of the Glorietta malls,
made the statement Thursday after the PNP released its final
report on the blast which killed 11 persons and injured at least
100 others.
The final report said a mixture of methane
gas and diesel vapor that accumulated in the mall’s basement
caused the explosion.
