ABS-CBN Butuan reporters Rodge Cultura (right, holding microphone) and Richmond Hinayon, received death threats last July 29 and 24, respectively. They believe the threats sprang from their stories on illegal logging (photo from Rodge Cultura’s Facebook profile).

Two provincial reporters of TV station ABS-CBN have reported receiving threats they believe are connected to their coverage of illegal logging.

Rodge Cultura said a boy handed him an envelope containing a single bullet Sunday morning, July 29, outside the ABS-CBN office in Butuan City.

Cultura said the boy walked away after handing the envelope.

Cultura’s fellow reporter Richmond Hinayon received a text message on July 24, 2012 warning him that his days are numbered. Hinayon said he received the text after a tip he gave to the city’s anti-illegal logging task force a day earlier led to the seizure of illegal logs.

Cultura and Hinayon said they feel both incidents are related.

Last month, two radio reporters and the editor-in-chief of the Mindanao Goldstar Daily also reported receiving death threats following Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo’s visit to Butuan City. Robredo had ordered an investigation on the alleged involvement of certain local government officials on illegal logging and the transport of illegally cut logs from the Caraga region to Northern Mindanao.

Reference:
JB R. Deveza
Coordinator, NUJP Mindanao Media Safety Office
0999 536 9592