BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — The former editor-in-chief of a provincial government newsletter in Nueva Vizcaya, who is also a regular contributor of local weeklies in Cagayan Valley region is in hiding due to death threats he has received.
Local writer Genaro Basilio Jr., former editor in chief of the quarterly Vizcaya Reporter, official publication of the Nueva Vizcaya provincial government, told the Philippine News Agency through online chats that he has been receiving death threats and actual confrontations since his arrival from a vacation abroad last Christmas.
He said he had cut off his personal mobile phone number to avoid getting more death threats from unknown senders.
Basilio left government service last January 25 after more than 20 years as provincial information officer and Public Affairs and Information Assistance Division chief and actively wrote for various local magazines and newspapers in the region aside from producing broadcast documentaries.
Basilio relayed two incidents where he escaped attacks by unknown suspects, receiving threatening text messages from unidentified senders and of strange new faces passing by his house. He said he had to leave and go in hiding to protect himself.
Basilio has been a media practitioner since the early ’90s and is known to be a staunch oppositor of illegal gambling, logging, and mining operations. He said he could not figure out who is behind the threats against him. (Bill Visaya/PNA)
