BI mulls blacklisting 2 wrestlers
By Rio N. Araja
THE Bureau of Immigration is studying a move to place two American wrestlers and their bodyguard in the blacklist order for insulting a reporter at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
Raoul Esperas, from radio station dwIZ and assigned to Naia, wrote a letter to Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. asking him to include wrestler Mick Foley, an unidentified wrestler and bodyguard Barry Knight in the blacklist order.
Esperas complained about the verbal abuse he and his fellow reporters received from the three members of an entourage from the World Wrestling Entertainment, which visited the country and performed live at the Araneta Coliseum last Feb. 24-25.
Foley and his companions arrived from Los Angeles onboard a Philippine Airlines flight at the Naia-2 Centennial Terminal a day before their scheduled public appearance.
Esperas said he and other members of the Naia Press Corps were about to approach Foley and the still unidentified wrestler when their’ bodyguards, led by Knight, prevented them from taking pictures and videos.
The reporter drew the ire of the three foreigners, who called him a “brown monkey” and hurled invectives at him in the middle of the baggage conveyor area in front of passengers, employees and fellow journalists.
He said Naia Press Corps president Jerry Yap, a National Press Club (NPC) board director; Pilipino Star Ngayon columnist Butch Quejada, the NPC board chairman and two tabloid reporters: Rudy Genteroy of People’s Journal and Edwin Alcala of Hataw, witnessed the incident.
“Any person who is verbally and racially assaulted will retaliate just to point out that we Filipinos will fight for our dignity and honor,” he said in his letter.
The immigration’s chief of Task Force on Deportation, Arvin Santos, directed Esperas to submit pieces of evidence, including the video footage of the incident.
