MANILA -- Initial findings of an investigation showed that the shooting incident supposedly involving a journalist in Ifugao province "could not have been" related to media work, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) said on Wednesday.
Brandon Lee was reportedly shot in front of his house around 6 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 6) in Lagawe, Ifugao province. He survived the attack.
The PTFoMS immediately conducted an investigation and found that Lee is also an active member of the Ifugao Peasant Movement (IPM) and writes for the online media outfit Northern Dispatch.
Citing reports from local media contacts and police officials in Ifugao, PTFoMS Executive Director, Undersecretary Jose M. Sy Egco, said Lee is an American national and permanently residing in the Philippines.
“Official police reports and information gathered from local media showed that the attack could not have been related to media work,” a PTFoMS statement read.
In April 2015, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said the US government needed to protect Chinese-American Lee, because he was among IPM members and Ifugao human rights workers being accused of supporting the New People’s Army (NPA).
Previously, a local group named Lee and five others as “accomplices of the terrorist NPA in Ifugao”
Despite findings that the attack could not have been related to media work, the PTFoMS said it will continue to monitor the progress of the investigation. (PNA)
