Jordanian journalist shooted documentary about Abu Sayyaf

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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It was reported that Jesse Robredo, the Interior and Local Government Secretary said that Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration should ban Baker Abdulla Atyani, the Jordanian journalist from returning to the country once he surfaced. Robredo claimed that Atyani did not disclose his plans to interview Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Mindanao with his two Filipino crew members.

The chief of the Department of the Interior and Local said, the missing Atyani and his two companions were in continuous communication with the government officials. Accordint to the media reports, Robredo said that Atyani and his two accompanying persons were successful to communicate with the Sulu Government Sakur Tan and they informed Tan that they were able to shoot a documentary about the bandit group Abu Sayyaf in Patikul, Sulu.  

Robredo said, “as far as the government is concerned, Atyani and his companions are safe”. However he said that he would ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Immigration to ban Atyani from returning to Philippines because he believed that Atyani was being dishonest and betrayed the government officials after his failure to declare that he would be interviewing Abu Sayyaf and shooting a documentary about him.    

The DOJ called for caution among speculations that missing Atyani might have ties with the Al Qaeda or the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the southern Philippine island of Sulu.

Justice Sec. Leila De Lima said, “Siguro huwag muna tayo padalos dalos. Alamin muna natin ang pangyayari. What exactly is the agenda, if any, of that journalist other than, you know, his work? He is a journalist and siyempre may mga karapatan din ang journalist, so kailangan balansehin yan: national security, national interest as against a journalist’s rights.”

Atyani and his crewmen were last seen leaving their hostel in Sulu and riding a van to an unknown destination on June 12. Since then the trio have yet to return to their inn.