KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/17 November) -- Radio blocktimer Alberto Encarnacion, whom Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol allegedly warned on October 29 to stop discussing the alleged landgrabbing case filed against the latter, reported the incident to the police station that same afternoon but had his entry noted “off air pls.” The police blotter at the Central Police Station was entry number 13 that day, was recorded at 2:27 p.m. (see photograph).
The blotter reads, verbatim: “Alberto Eboy Encarnacion, 55 years old, married, barangay captain of Meohao, Kidapawan City and a resident of Brgy. Meohao, Kidapawan City personally appeared to this station and requested to put into record that Vice Governor Emmanuel entered to the Radio Natin FM station and give warning to this reportee to stop the issue/stop the broadcast regarding the land that he buy at Sinoda, Kitaotao, Bukidnon. Said land was covered by Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). Incident happened at 1:03 o’clock in the afternoon of October 29, 2009 after the program together with his co-anchor Jimmy Tuan steel inside the both of Radio Natin FM station. For record purposes.”
Encarnacion and Tuan affixed their signatures below the entry.
“Bully”
Encarnacion, a Manobo, hosts a weekly radio program over Radio Natin that caters to indigenous peoples. The program runs from 12 noon to 1 p.m. every Thursday.
On November 9, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) national chapter issued a statement condemning North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol’s “shameless abuse of authority” for allegedly threatening a radio blocktimer who criticized Pinol’s alleged “landgrabbing” from indigenous peoples in Arakan, North Cotabato and Bukidnon.
Piñol “has unmasked himself as a bully who has no qualms about abusing his powers to harass and threaten those he does not agree with,” the NUJP statement issued by National Council Vice President Nonoy Espina on November 9, said. The statement was e-mailed to MindaNews by the NUJP’s local chapter in Kidapawan on November 11.
The NUJP statement said it received reports that Piñol, “backed by his security escorts, barged into the Radyo Natin station in Kidapawan City to stop the broadcast of block time announcer Alberto Encarnacion, who had been criticizing the vice governor for allegedly grabbing land from indigenous people in Barangay Sinoda, Kitaotao, Bukidnon and Arakan, North Cotabato. The criticism apparently stemmed from a land-grabbing case filed against Piñol by the indigenous people.”
“Granting, without conceding, that Encarnacion went overboard in his criticism of Piñol, the vice governor had absolutely no right to force his way into the station, his thugs in tow, to threaten the announcer. We are sure Piñol, as a former broadcaster, also knows that there are other, legal, means to seek redress,” the NUJP statement said.
“Apparently, Piñol has allowed the power he has wielded for quite some time to transform him into that stereotype of provincial Philippine politics – the tin pot tyrant, the warlord, who thinks that his every word is law and woe unto anyone who dares disagree,” the statement read.
‘Baseless’
But Pinol, who has several weekly radio programs in North Cotabato and Cotabato City, said the NUJP statement was baseless.
He told MindaNews in a text message late afternoon of November 11 that he called up NUJP president Nestor Burgos “asking him to allow me to confront Nonoy Espina who issued the statement.”
Pinol claimed the NUJP statement “was based on unverified reports. For info, I went to the (Radyo Natin) station to air my side in an unfair commentary made by a blocktimer, obviously a paid broadcaster, (barangay) chairman Alberto Encarnacion …. There were only three of us and we were not carrying firearms. We sat and talked. I was angry but I did not threaten him. I am questioning NUJP’s statement because it was sweeping, careless and based on hearsay. There is a concerted effort to demolish me thru publicity. I hope you don’t become an unwitting tool. I am willing to meet the NUJP officers anytime. I am still waiting for their response.”
In a four-page statement, Pinol said ”the savage and vicious verbal attacks made against me by the NUJP, an organization supposedly committed to protecting journalists and safeguarding press freedom, has greatly tarnished the respectability of the Union.”
Espina told MindaNews on Nov. 11 that the statement was collegial.“I don’t know Pinol and have no reason to demolish him. NUJP statements are collegial and this one was based on info from the chapter who we have no reason to doubt.”
Mum
MindaNews again sent a text message to Encarnacion on November 17 but he has kept mum. MindaNews has been trying to get in touch with him for days now to find out exactly what happened on October 29 when Pinol reportedly harassed him but Encarnacion didn’t reply to MindaNews’ message on November 7. Asked again on November 8, Encarnacion replied, through text message, “may assembly miting kami.” Asked what time was the best time to call him, he didn’t’ reply.
Subsequent messages and calls to Encarnacion on Nov. 9, 10 and 11 yielded no response. His phone just kept ringing.
Encarnacion, however, was interviewed on November 3 by DXCA Charm Radio in Kidapawan where he narrated how an angry Pinol warned him to stop his allegedly unfair report.
Encarnacion told DXCA that Pinol knocked on his booth three minutes before he was ending his program but that he ended his program first before facing Pinol.
He said Pinol told him, “I’m warning you. Untati nyo na ni na issue kay hindi tuod” (Stop this because it’s not true).
Encarnacion was commenting on a report that Lumads in Sinoda, Kitaotao, Bukidnon, had filed a case against Pinol.
Lumads vs Pinol
The Federation of Matigsalug and Manobo Tribal Councils (Femmatrics) last month sued Pińol for alleged “unlawful intrusion and encroachment” into their ancestral domain and “willful disregard and open violation of their right to ‘Free Prior Informed Consent.’
Datu Roelito A. Gawilan, tribal chieftain and Femmatrics chair, filed his affidavit-complaint to Bukidnon provincial prosecutor Mirabeaus Undalok on October 6, charging Pinol for alleged violation of the penal provisions of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, particularly Sections 72 and 73 thereof, of Trespassing under the Revised Penal Code, of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. 3019) and of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (R.A. 6713).
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo awarded the tribe’s 70,000 members with a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) on October 31, 2003 in Davao City over a total land area of 102,324.8186 hectares. The area straddles Bukidnon, Davao City, and Arakan Valley in North Cotabato.
Parts of the Femmatrics’ ancestral domain, are being occupied by non-Lumads, mostly the wealthy from Bukidnon, Davao City and neighboring North Cotabato, for vacation houses and plantations. The area boasts of a Baguio-like climate.
In his affidavit, Gawilan said that sometime in February 2007, he received a report from the tribal leaders of Kulaman Valley in Arakan and Barangay Sagundanon in Kitaotao, Bukidnon that an Emmanuel Piñol acquired 300 hectares of land in Barangay Binoongan, Arakan, Cotabato – a portion of their ancestral domain.
He said he immediately called for an investigation.
The investigation, Gawilan said, yielded the following information: that Piñol, then governor, bought 300 hectares from Pablito B. Berdin, Selverio O. Mangga and Ruben Endao for P3 million paid in several installments.
“Ridiculous”
Pinol found the allegations “ridiculous.”
“How can I even be charged of trespassing or grabbing a piece of land that I have not taken possession of, or at the very least, seen with my own eyes? I don’t even know the exact location of the land,” he told MindaNews in a text message.
“Indeed, there was an offer by tribal leaders led by Datu Ruben Endao to lease the property to me to be planted to rubber but the deal has not progressed because I required them to present a certificate of prior consent from tribal leaders in the area,” he said.
But Pinol added, “Let them file it (complaint) so that the issues can be threshed out.”
He later said, “please inform Gawilan that he better be sure his charges will hold water otherwise I will file libel and malicious prosecution cases against him and his cohorts.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
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