Aurora env’talist, broadcaster still missing after 8 months

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 4) — Aurora province environmentalist and radio broadcaster Joey Estriber is still missing since he was reportedly abducted eight months ago.

Voicing its outrage on Saturday, the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) demanded an explanation for the alleged “indifference of both local and national authorities to the fate of Estriber, also anti-logging campaigner” who has been missing ever since he was allegedly kidnapped outside an Internet café in Baler, in Aurora province on the evening of March 3, this year.

“It is eight months to the day since Estriber was abducted and nothing has been done by the authorities to find and identify his kidnappers,” the press freedom organization RSF said.

“It seems that complicity between the local police and logging companies has prevented any progress in the investigation. The authorities in Manila must restart inquiries as a matter of urgency.” said Vincent Brossel Asia – Pacific Desk officer of the RSF based in rue Geoffroy Marie 75009 Paris, France.

A freelance journalist who presented the program Pag-usapan Natin (Let’s talk about that) on local radio station DZJO, Estriber was reportedly kidnapped by four gunmen.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the kidnapping took place a few yards from a police station, but the police never questioned the witnesses.

Estriber who is married has four children. His siblings had no source of income since his disappearance.

A well-known critic of deforestation in Aurora province, he often condemned over his radio program intensive logging by companies supported by people within the local government. He had also participated in a campaign calling for the withdrawal of the nine licenses issued to logging companies in Aurora.

Estriber also worked for a local development non-government organization — Bataris — which a military officer speaking on a radio station in February described as the kind of organization that should be combated. # Ace Alegre for NORDIS