The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) demands the surfacing of Cagayan de Oro journalist Rolando Gono, who went missing in Camiguin Island Sunday morning as it challenged authorities to take appropriate action against Camiguin Gov. Jurdin Jesus “JJ” M. Romualdo who, with several of his followers, mauled two other Cagayan de Oro media men.
“We demand that the Commission on Elections immediately place Camiguin under its control and, if local authorities cannot or will not act against Romualdo and his minions, to replace the security forces on the island with those who will,” NUJP said.
Rene Abris, a volunteer reporter of Cagayan de Oro’s Hot FM 106.3, said Gono, who was his stringer, had gone missing shortly after sending a text message around 11:45 a.m. asking for help because he had been accosted by men he did not know.
Gono also said in his message that the unidentified men also asked for Abris.
Gono’s abduction came soon after Abris had filed a report from the Catarman police station about the mauling of TV 13’s Herbert Hugo Dumaguing and his son Hubert,while they were taking video shots of Romualdo and his men allegedly handing out envelopes to voters.
Herbert Hugo said he rushed to pick up Hubert but they were surrounded before they could escape.
When they refused demands to hand over their equipment, he said some of the men around them drew guns and aimed them. Herbert Hugo was pistol-whipped on the head with a .45 caliber pistol while his son suffered contusions and abrasions from the beating. Their assailants also seized a camera and other belongings from them.
Abris said Gono had asked permission to return to Cagayan de Oro because a child had gotten sick. He never made it out of Catarman.
Colleagues following up the incidents have reported that police met with Romualdo in another barangay of Catarman but took no action against the provincial executive.
“These brazen violations, not only of election laws, but of criminal laws and of the basic human and civil rights enshrined in our Constitution cannot and should not be countenanced,” NUJP said.
NUJP also demanded the disarming of all private armed groups maintained by politicians in Camiguin.