DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 16 September) — Journalists from various organizations, among them the editors-in-chief of the city’s three newspapers, have joined forces to condemn the disinformation and harassments that their colleagues experienced from members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) during the manhunt for Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy, KOJC founder and self-appointed “son of God.”
In a collective statement on the “harassment of journalists in the police operations to arrest Pastor Quiboloy” issued on Monday, it said that KOJC members hurled verbal abuse and threats at journalists, subjecting them to harassments, intimidation, and humiliation while covering the standoff that started on August 24 and ended on September 8 when Quiboloy was arrested.
The 16-day police operations to arrest Quiboloy resulted in a heightened tension between law enforcers and KOJC members. The religious leader, along with four of his five co-accused, was believed hiding inside the 23-hectare compound in Davao City.
The Editors-in-Chief of Davao City’s newspapers — Mindanao Times, SunStar Davao and Edge Davao — and the Editor-in-Chief and Special Reports Editor of Davao City-based MindaNews, the Bureau Chief and Desk Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer Mindanao Bureau, the Publisher and News Chief of Newsline Philippines, regional head of the Philippine News Agency and Head of the News Operations and Administration of PTV Davao/Mindanao Media Hub, reporters and photojournalists, the Davao City Media-Citizens Council, Mindanao Independent Press Council and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Davao City chapter signed the collective letter.
The list of signatories is to be updated.
Cursing the media in a “prayer rally”
The collective statement noted that the media workers experienced being “bullied or cajoled and used by one party of the conflict to outsmart another,” prompting them to document the incidents of harassment and report them to police authorities.
The documentation showed that from Day 1 to Day 16, KOJC members and supporters repeatedly heckled reporters as “bayaran” (paid hacks) or “biased,” “one-sided,” “fake news.”
At the “prayer rally and candle-lighting” of the KOJC on August 25, they cursed the media in their “prayers.” They said: “Lord paulana ug kalayo para masunog ang mga media na bayaran” (Lord, let it rain fire to burn the paid media) or “Gabaan mo ni (You will be cursed by the) Pastor for siding with PNP (Philippine National Police).”
On August 26, KOJC members and supporters harassed a group of reporters from MindaNews, Newsline, Philippine Daily Inquirer and PTV Davao. The mob, including some carrying a “Maisug” banner, shooed them away. The reporters proceeded to the Buhangin Police Station for the blotter.
Every day, KOJC members and supporters would take photos and videos of reporters covering the event, a number of them even going live and annotating their visuals with “bayaran” and “biased” media. Some were even more intrusive. They would take photographs or video of the reporters’ phone screens while they were typing stories or photo captions.
KOJC members would also join a huddle of reporters to listen to their conversations and heckle them. During streetside interviews, KOJC members would disrupt reporters’ focus on their interviewees by heckling “biased” and “bayaran” and by asking the reporters’ interviewees questions not related to the topics the reporters were pursuing.
TV reporters doing standuppers were often interrupted by hecklers shouting “biased, bayaran.” On Day 16, September 8, at around 9 p.m., when Quiboloy was reported to have arrived in Metro Manila from Davao, KOJC members harassed a reporter for a national TV network who was on standby for a live report. “Fake news, fake news,” they jeered, while taking video of the reporter.
Yelling online; “send me your news”
KOJC created a Viber chat group for media on August 28 where reporters are supposed to receive updates from the KOJC or ask questions. But in their postings, KOJC officials and lawyers called out reporters, warned them and even attempted to direct coverage. Some messages were written in all caps. An all caps post signifies yelling online.
A post from “Mercury” (real name unknown) warned reporters in the loop at 5:03 p.m. on August 29: Paki send sa akoa pm ang inyu mga balita paki cut sa video. Isend sa akoa para ma asure jud unsa inyu gibalita. Once mu slant inyo balita, kabalo mo unsa buhaton sa KOJC. Mao nang magtarung mog balita. (Send me your news, cut the video. Send to me to assure us what you reported. Once you slant the news, you know what KOJC will do. So you report properly).
Atty. Israelito Torreon, Quiboloy’s chief counsel repeatedly told reporters from August 24 to September 2 that they would not allow them inside the compound because KOJC could not guarantee their safety. In his press conference on September 3, he challenged regional police chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre to come at 4 p.m. so they could go together to the basement of Jose Maria College, to prove to the general there was digging there. But he did not wait for 4 p.m. After his presscon ended at around 3 p.m., Torreon, without giving the reporters any cautionary briefing, hurriedly listed their names in his notebook and stormed the basement followed by them. Reporters had absolutely no idea where to seek shelter inside the compound in case something untoward happened.
The 16-day coverage was not only physically taxing but also adversely affected the mental health of journalists, and was particularly traumatic for the younger ones, some of whom worried about what stories to report, anticipating they would be bullied by those who insist that their version of the story is the only version that should be reported by the media.
A batch of journalists underwent a psychosocial first aid last Saturday to reduce stress symptoms and assist in recovering from a traumatic event.
Verification is our discipline
The collective statement also noted that journalists witnessed how “disinformation, half-truths and lies spread like wildfire on social media, even before we could bat an eye and check where they came from and verify.”
It said the disinformation came from interest groups who harassed and threatened journalists when their reports did not align with their narrative.
“We are aware where this disinformation came from: they came from interest groups who wanted to control the narrative by manipulating the media. In their bid to control the narrative, they harassed and threatened us when we wrote or broadcast stories that did not match or follow their storyline,” it added.
It said that it is not the journalists’ role to carry their propaganda or push their own agenda, as they maintained that their role is “to deliver timely, relevant, accurate information to the public, information that will allow them to take part meaningfully as citizens in a functioning democracy.”
“Do not expect us to accept hook, line, and sinker whatever it is you tell us. As journalists, verification is our discipline. We verify, we countercheck, we seek various sources to try as best as we can to ferret out the Truth,” it added.
Barking up the wrong tree
The journalists also called out Davao City’s first district Councilor Bonz Andre A. Militar, chair of the Committee on Information and Technology, who criticized the journalists for the “misinformation and disinformation” on the KOJC incident
In his privilege speech at the City Council of Davao last September 10, Militar told the journalists from the mainstream media or online news and even social media influencers to “recommit to the highest standards of journalistic integrity.”
He reminded them that “misinformation and disinformation” are dangerous and could only “breed fear, create panic, and will only confuse people.”
However, the journalists took exception to Militar’s speech.
“Councilor Bonz Militar, you are barking up the wrong tree. As chair of the Committee on Information and Technology, you know who the sources of disinformation are,” the collective statement said.
In the early days of the police operations, SMNI News, KOJC’s broadcast arm, first reported, on its Facebook page, unverified reports of the alleged death of seven KOJC members last August 24, the lockdown of Davao City, and the cancellation of flights at the Davao International Airport.
However, only one was confirmed dead due to cardiac arrest, the city was not placed under lockdown and flights continued.
“Let us in the media do our job and if you truly care about the public good, it would do well for the City Council to help foster an environment where journalists can perform their duties without the constant threat of intimidation, harassment, or other forms of attacks,” the journalists said.
They emphasized that the importance of having a “safe and supportive space for journalists to report freely and accurately is critical to ensuring the integrity of the information that reaches the public.”
Despite the challenges that they endured during the coverage, it said that journalists “who reported from the field and the news desks that vetted their stories, were unfazed because of our adherence to the essential principles and practices of journalism, our Code of Ethics and our respective editorial policies.”
“As Kovach and Rosentsiel say, our first obligation as journalists is to the Truth and our first loyalty is to the Citizens. Our bias is for the Truth,” the collective statement stressed.
The journalists urged parties to respect media’s independence to “report beyond the narratives they wish to promote.”
“We call on our colleagues in the media to join forces in confronting disinformation and to always be on the alert against those who aim to manipulate the Truth. We believe that an unchained press is the bedrock of a peaceful and robust Davao City,” it said.
Quiboloy’s cases
Quiboloy is facing charges of sexual abuse, child abuse, and qualified human trafficking, along with co-accused Jackielyn Roy, Cresente Canada, Paulene Canada, Ingrid Canada, and Sylvia Cemañes. Paulene was arrested last July 11 at her residence in Emily Homes Subdivision in Barangay Cabantian here.
The suspects have two warrants of arrest issued by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 12 in Davao City and the RTC in Pasig City in April this year.
Last May 28, the Supreme Court’s Second Division ordered the transfer of the two criminal cases from the RTC in Davao to the RTC in Quezon City.
Quiboloy and his co-accused pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges file against them in separate arraignments before RTC Pasig City and RTC Quezon City last September 13.
Quiboloy was cited for contempt on March 5 for snubbing for the third time the hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality. A warrant for his arrest was signed by then Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on March 19.
The Senate committee was investigating, in aid of legislation, the “reported cases of large-scale human trafficking, rape, sexual abuse and violence, and child abuse of the … KOJC under its leader Apollo Quiboloy.”
Quiboloy and two other church administrators have been placed on a “wanted” list by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since early 2022 for “conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.”
The “wanted by the FBI” posters of Quiboloy, Teresita Tolibas Dandan, and Helen Panilag, were posted on the FBI’s website nearly three months after federal warrants of arrest were issued on November 10, 2021. (Antonio L. Colina IV with a report by Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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