Injured	Killed
0	0

Date: 16 November 2010
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20101119-304031/Radioman-links-threat-to-views-on-Apeco-aired-on-his-program

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—A man threw an explosive device at the house of a radio broadcaster in Baler, Aurora, on Tuesday night, and police said no one was hurt. But the mild explosion punctured the door of the house of Bernie Rada in Barangay Buhangin.

“Definitely, it’s not a grenade. The damage doesn’t show a grenade-type of explosion,” Senior Supt. Rosve Manulid, Aurora police director, said by phone.

Rada, 40, was in Manila at the time of the attack. His wife and three children were unhurt, Manulid said.

A neighbor saw the suspect near Rada’s house a few minutes before the explosion, according to initial police reports.

Rada, in a telephone interview, said he suspected that the blast was a retaliation for the Tuesday episode of his show “Morning Pasada” on Radyo Natin.

“I tackled Apeco (Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport). I first read anti-Apeco comments. I then read pro-Apeco comments. I think that drew trouble for me,” he said.

Apeco, spanning nearly 13,000 hectares in Casiguran, was created by a law initiated by Sen. Edgardo Angara and his son, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara.

Churches and nongovernment groups opposed the project.

Rada said this was the first threat he had received in his 18 years as a broadcaster.

In May 2005, gunmen shot dead Philip Mendoza, publisher of the community newspaper Starline that tackled corruption of public funds for victims of killer landslides in 2004.

In June this year, men attacked the convent where Fr. Joefran Talaban lives. Talaban supported the campaign against Apeco. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon