21/01/2023
P/Brig. Gen. Romeo M. Caramat Jr.,
Acting Director
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group
Camp Crame, Quezon City
OPEN LETTER
Dear General Caramat:
We, the members of the Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders Inc., who are also working as journalists in various tri-media outfits in the region, hereby conveys to your good office our complaints and indignation against the brash, and arrogant attitude of your personnel in the CIDG-Region 8 office.
Among the show of unprofessionalism by your men in the region was an incident yesterday (Jan. 20): Four of us of the Tacloban media went to the CIDG-8 office to gather official data and particulars about the agency’s raid of a cache of fi****ms in the 3rd district of Leyte. We identified ourselves as journalists, but a uniformed personnel, who was at the receiving table in a cubicle near the office entrance, was snobbish by not allowing us to settle into the reception lobby where we could wait for the regional chief who we were going to interview. Another uniformed staff, a female one this time, came to us and bluntly told us that the chief is not around. We asked her if we can talk to their PIO or maybe their other officers privy to the raid, but to no avail. With all options to get information down the drain, we asked the female staff that we will just sign the visitors’ log for that day as proof that we were there and tried to gain access to their officers and official data about a certain incident. Fortunately, she allowed us to do so.
Earlier, another case was during the rainy days last week when we visited the CIDG-8 regional office for an update on the DILG’s courtesy resignation order, and follow-up on vital accomplishments of the agency---all of which we aimed for news dissemination to the public. As we reached the reception desk, no one was present or on duty, so we decided to knock on the glass door. A policewoman came up to us, thus we told her of our purpose. She went into the office of the regional chief and, we overheard, she asked the secretary. To our surprise, a slim woman---not in uniform---came out of the RC’s office and told us her boss was unavailable because he was on a zoom meeting. We politely asked her why she was not in uniform, so we shall know her name, she replied that her uniform was still wet from a laundry. Running out of options, we resigned ourselves to our fate.
However, allow us to ask: Is it not an essential requirement for a police officer on duty to be on full uniform always, with a badge and nameplate in full view, for identification and good impression to the public?
There was one time much earlier when the arrogant guard of the regional office, apparently irritated of our insistence to gain access to any high-ranked regional officials for an interview, blurted out that we should not be too pushy because they knew our addresses and our houses anyway. It was a veiled threat, reading between the lines, and it does not fit to the dignified character of professionals that your office abounds. It was simply contemptible.
Basing our grievances on just these three incidents, among many similar others, we would like to inform you that your regional office is wanting of reforms and better public service. If they could afford to treat harshly the visiting media or journalists, we could just imagine how cold their treatment would be to the common people or public in general. We shall therefore ask for reformed regional personnel who would be more professional, accommodating and engaging to the community they serve.
While we believe that the CIDG, as a whole, especially under your administration, observes the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Standards, we the journalists in Region 8 hereby appeal to your leadership to uphold our rights to information by allowing us access to official regional data, access to your regional officers for interview, and access to official information on matters of both national and regional interests. Thank you very much.
Very truly yours,
Miriam G. Desacada
President
Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders Inc.
