2 Oro-based journalists, Musnis red-tagged anew

CAGAYAN de Oro-based journalists Froilan Gallardo and Leonardo Vicente “Cong” Corrales were included again in another list of local personalities linked to the New People’s Army (NPA) without evidence along with two human rights lawyers here.

Gallardo is a special correspondent of this paper who also writes for Mindanews while Corrales is associate editor of the Gold Star Daily.

Their names were included in flyers that included prominent human rights lawyer Beverly Selim-Musni and her daughter Czarina, also a lawyer.

Flyers were sent through a courier service, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said.

“The courier packet that contained the flyer targeting Cong (Corrales) identified the sender as Danilo Tirso Mantangan of Sitio Camansi, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental with mobile phone number 09091020123,” NUJP said.

‘Potentially deadly’

The flyers, produced by a “Black Mamba” purportedly of the “MAT-NMR Press Club Chapter,” claims there is a P1-million bounty for the death of Corrales, and makes the “totally false claim that Cong is facing a criminal rape with murder case involving a child,” the NUJP said.

Corrales, a former NUJP director, as well as the Musnis had been previously red-tagged along with a number of church leaders and human rights advocates.

“We hold that the reason the red tagging, particularly of Cong, has worsened to actually turn potentially deadly is because of the apparent lack of interest of local government and security units to protect those so threatened and to go after and prosecute those responsible for this clearly dangerous vilification.

“And it is almost a certainty that, unless contained, the threats to Cong, Froilan and other journalists who have been targeted by the cowards who hide behind these shadowy groups and names could escalate,” it warned. (Mindanews)