Subic reporters spooked by `Red assassins'

Journalists covering the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFZ) in Zambales have expressed alarm over claims by the Task Force Subic that a correspondent of the national tabloid, Pilipino Star Ngayon (PSN), is now the target of assassination by breakaway communist rebels operating in Central Luzon.

In a statement by 13 Subic-based journalists belonging to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), task force chief, retired Maj. Gen. Jose Calimlim, was criticized for having issued last Feb. 6 a press release claiming that PSN correspondent, Jeff Tombado, is now being hunted down by assassins of the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB).

The press release went on to state that the rebel assassins were hired by smuggling syndicates.

The RHB is the armed wing of the underground Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP), a breakaway faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA).

But according to the NUJP-Olongapo City/Subic Bay Chapter, Tombado was a "well known critic of Calimlim."

It said that the "implied logic" in the purported assassination plot on Tombado was "that by rubbing out a well-known critic of Calimlim's and blaming the hit on the retired general, the smugglers - whoever they are - would succeed in getting Calimlim out of their way."

"The scenario was supposed to be a masterstroke of the smugglers," added the Subic-based journalists in their statement. "So the former chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) countered with a coup of his own - he exposed the planned hit through a press release, thereby washing his own hands of whatever would result from the alleged smugglers' scheme."

If indeed the assassination plot was true, the NUJP in Subic suggested that it would have been "most prudent for the general and his intelligence people to keep silent while working on the case, secure the safety of would-be victims and arrest the suspects."

"What disturbs the local media about this whole thing," it added, "is that the Task Force Subic did just the exact opposite - it came out with a press release exposing the alleged plot, thus making Tombado an open target for assassination, and allowing the alleged plotters to go scot-free."

The Subic-based mediamen lamented that Task Force Subic's "press release achieved nothing else" except "to wash (Calimlim's) hands of whatever could result from the alleged plot."

Besides, added the NUJP, the press release's claims were alarming to the Subic community since it even disclosed that RHB guerillas "are roaming inside the Freeport."