Fernan Angeles, a Manila-based journalist who survived a slay-attempt in March 2012, is still under threat; he receiving a threatening phone call and a police officer allegedly involved in the attempt on his life has been seen near his residence.
A Manila-based journalist who survived a slay-attempt last March 2012 is still under threat. He received a threatening call in the evening of 2 June 2013.
Fernan Angeles, a correspondent for Interaksyon.com, told CMFR in a phone interview last 3 June 2013 that he received a call from mobile phone number 09162612546 between 7 and 8 PM last 2 June 2013.
Angeles asked who the caller was but Angeles said the person on the other line just asked, “How are you? We will hit you, yes? We will hit you.”
“I just told the guy, ‘Sorry sir, the line’s choppy,’ and he dropped the line,” Angeles said.
Angeles’s wife Gemma informed CMFR of the threatening call moments after they received it.
Angeles said they tried to call the person back but he would not answer. CMFR also called the mobile phone number but no one answered.
“I am almost certain that whoever called was also involved in the ambush of March 2012,” Angeles told CMFR. “(He sounded) like a cop.”
He added that a police officer allegedly involved in the attempt on his life over a year ago has been seen near his residence.
On 11 March 2012, Angeles, then a reporter for the Manila newspaper The Daily Tribune, was mauled and shot six times in Pasig City (part of Metro Manila). The attack was said to have been connected to Angeles’s reports and commentaries on the illegal drug trade in the city. The perpetrators are facing attempted murder charges before the Pasig Regional Trial Court. The attempt on Manila-based Angeles was rare. Most of the threats and actual violence against journalists in the Philippines have been directed against community-based practitioners.
Angeles last reported receiving threatening text messages on 11 March 2013. He told CMFR why he was under threat one year after he survived a slay-attempt.
“(My friend) learned that I am being hunted and held responsible for a (police) raid on the old shabu tiangge (market) compound in Pasig City,” Angeles said in an e-mail to CMFR last 13 March 2013.
The police, for their part, have denied mentioning Angeles as the informant that led police to raid the drug compound, and endangering his life.
