TF211 SPONSORS SEMINAR-WORKSHOP ON SECURITY FOR NORTHERN MINDANAO MEDIA

Task Force 211 recently sponsored a seminar-workshop on personal security for members of the tri-media in Northern Mindanao. The event was held at the VIP Hotel in Cagayan de Oro City on June 19, 2009. Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, TF 211 Chairman, welcomed the guests and participants to the seminar-workshop. Resource persons for the seminar on media ethics and personal security were Atty. Reggie Jularbal, general counsel of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng Pilipinas or KBP and Col. Andy Gauran, an expert of VIP security. Also present at the event were KBP President Herman Basbano, FFFJ Chairman Jose Pavia, and NUJP Vice-Chairperson Nonoy Espina. More or less a hundred of tri-media practitioners in and around Cagayan de Oro City participated in the said event. The seminar was capped by a workshop where participants decided and designed a media action center in CDO to serve as a quick-response and monitoring center. The participants also
pledged on the following as their contribution to the call to stop media killings in the country. more>>>

Vital Witness of Media Killing Case Arrested 05/18/09--Task Force 211 orchestrated on Saturday the arrest of Peter Melgar, a vital witness in the murder case of local radio broadcaster Herson “Bombo Boy” Hinolan in Kalibo, Aklan. Melgar was the first eyewitness to positively identify Aklan Mayor Alfredo Arcenio as the killer who gunned down Hinolan on November 13, 2004.  Five days after the incident, he made a sworn statement positively identifying the Mayor as the gunman. He then sought the help of the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice claiming that his life is under serious threat.  Around four (4) years later, however, he went out of the program and, shortly thereafter, executed an affidavit of recantation...more>>>