(CMFR/IFEX) – According to Metro Manila newspaper reports, a cable television reporter for Net 25 has been missing since 19 January 2002, when she was last seen by the Philippine military and police in Basilan, Mindanao. The reporter was allegedly in Basilan to conduct exclusive interviews with the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has been holding […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – According to Metro Manila newspaper reports, a cable television reporter for Net 25 has been missing since 19 January 2002, when she was last seen by the Philippine military and police in Basilan, Mindanao. The reporter was allegedly in Basilan to conduct exclusive interviews with the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has been holding two Americans and one Filipino captive for several months.
The Basilan Crisis Management Committee (BCMC) is also investigating rumours that Arlyn de la Cruz, also a contributor for the broadsheet “Philippine Daily Inquirer”, was carrying a P50-million (approx. US$977,487) ransom for the three hostages.
Nevertheless, a military spokesperson was quoted in another Manila newspaper as saying that the report on de la Cruz’s disappearance was “raw information” that has yet to be verified. The Philippine military has declared the de la Cruz case a “missing persons case”.
Soldiers in Mindanao, however, claim that de la Cruz was in fact abducted. She allegedly angered Abu Sayyaf members when she failed to pay them for the interviews with the hostages. CBS, a United States-based TV station, allegedly paid US$20,000 to Net 25 for exclusive rights to the footage and the equipment used for the interviews.
Net 25 has a “no comment” policy on the issue. The television station has issued no statements about the journalist’s disappearance and what she was doing in Basilan.
However, the “Inquirer” reported that Net 25 executives had told the defence department that de la Cruz has been regularly calling the station since her alleged abduction. De la Cruz allegedly told the newspaper she was working on an exclusive story in Mindanao.
A 5 February “Inquirer” report stated that the military had been monitoring her movements. A provincial police chief said she was seen alighting from a boat on 19 January and that she left with a companion on 20 January. He also claimed that the film grabs of the three kidnap victims still under Abu Sayyaf custody published in the “Inquirer” on 23 January were from de la Cruz, confirming the military’s suspicions that she has in fact been to the Abu Sayyaf camp. However, neither the photographs nor the article accompanying it were credited to de la Cruz.
De la Cruz has previously done exclusive interviews with the top members of the Abu Sayyaf and its hostages, most notably with the hostages taken from Sipadan Island, Malaysia in April 2000. The last article to appear in the “Inquirer” with her byline was published on 15 January.
