The bid of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ferret out bogus journalists covering Camp Crame in Quezon City suffered a twist of fate at the start of the crackdown.

Rather than netting one of the bogus journalists swarming Camp Crame, especially with the onset of the holiday season, the police’s campaign had a legitimate reporter officially assigned to cover the police camp as its first victim.

Silvestre Labay of radio station RMN Manila, became the first casualty of the sudden implementation of the new policy after he was held for 30 minutes by policemen manning the Santolan Gate for failure “to obtain clearance” from the office of the PNP-Public Information Office (PIO).

“I have been covering this beat for quite a long time but this was the first time I was treated this way,” said Labay.

Labay argued that he should have not been mistaken as a bogus reporter since aside from his press identification cards he was holding, he was riding in a marked media vehicle when the incident occurred at around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Labay was only allowed to go after the president of the PNP Press Corps, Noel Alamar, proceeded to the area and told the policemen that he is a bonafide member of the press organization covering the Camp Crame beat.

The PNP started to implement stricter security measures after some of its officials were reportedly pissed off by the frequent visits of reporters from never-heard media entities.

Five hours later, a group of photojournalists riding in marked media vehicles were held for at least 20 minutes also in the Santolan Gate and asked for clearance before they would be allowed to go. They, however, were allowed entry after the office of the PNP-PIO phoned the cops manning the gate.

“They should have coordinated with the PNP Press Corps before they implemented that new policy to prevent these incidents,” said Alamar.

Police officials have confirmed that bogus reporters usually swarm Camp Crame, especially before, during and even after the Yuletide season to ask for some favors and gifts from them.

For his part, Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, PNP spokesman, was quick to clarify that he did not issue any order to the policemen manning the gates to seek for his clearance first before mediamen could enter Camp Crame.

“I would like to set it straight for the record that I had nothing to do with what the guard uttered (seek for clearance from PIO Chief) as the statement suggests. This is why when the matter was given to my attention I immediately called up Gen. Alfabeto (Chief Superintendent Franklin Alfabeto), director of Headquarters Support Service, to inquire,” said Espina in a statement.

It was Alfebeto, said Espina, who informed him that the guards were just in security checks to protect Camp Crame from bogus reporters.

“He (Alfabeto) told me that guards were on routine security check for all who are entering the camp, which included illegitimate media personalities,” said Espina.

In order to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents, Espina said he will be issuing identification cards to all mediamen included in the list of legitimate members of the PNP Press Corps.

He added that the office of Alfabeto and the policemen manning the gates will also be furnished with the list of PNP Press Corps legitimate members for reference.

“Hoping that this clarifies everything and we are also hoping that whatever miscommunication that may have been caused by the guards' security check would be met with wider perception and understanding as they are there to secure us all and protect legitimate media members from illegitimate and fake media personalities,” said Espina.