Media Group Cries
Foul Over Red-Tag
BY BULATLAT
Posted 7:10 p.m. Mar 14, 2006
Kodao Productions, producers of the
multi-awarded radio show “Ngayon Na, Bayan!” cried foul over accusations
of Philippine National Police (PNP) witness Jaime B. Fuentes that it is a
“propaganda arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).”
Fuentes was presented by the PNP as
witness at the Preliminary Investigation of the Batasan 5. In his sworn
affidavit, he said he was a former member of the CPP who was privy to
certain meetings between leaders of legal organizations and underground
personalities who planned a campaign to overthrow the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
administration.
Fuentes said he became a member of
Kodao Productions in 1987.
However, Ron Papag of Kodao said their
group was formed only in 2001. “We challenge Fuentes and his handlers to
prove that he was ever part of Kodao’s team. He only deserves to be in the
company of liars and thieves,” he said at a press conference in Newsdesk,
Quezon City.
Fuentes’ accusation came after “Ngayon
Na, Bayan!” was cut off the air on Feb. 24, the same day the Presidential
Proclamation 1017 placing the country under a state of national emergency
was issued. Papag said their radio show was the first casualty of media
repression since the said declaration.
Jose Torres of the National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the closing down of Ngayon
Na, Bayan! and the red tagging of Kodao Productions as another attack on
media saying these were intended to drive a “chilling effect” on the media
industry as a whole. Bulatlat
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