Ces Drilon

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Ces Oreña-Drilon is a Filipino television journalist. She has presented several news and public affairs programs for the News and Current Affairs division of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, which she had joined in 1989. In June of 2008, she was reportedly kidnapped together with two cameramen of ABS-CBN News while in Sulu.

Oreña-Drilon is married to the painter Rock Drilon, a nephew of former Senate President Franklin Drilon; they have four children.^[1]

1 Career
2 Abduction
- 2.1 Criticism
3 References

[edit] Career

Oreña-Drilon began her career in television journalism in 1985 when she joined the Maharlika Broadcasting System (later renamed People's Television 4) as a news reporter.^[1] Her reporting on the capture of Army renegade Col. Gregorio Honasan caught the attention of ABS-CBN Network, which hired her in 1989 to cover the Philippine Senate.^[2] Drilon would regular appearances on The World Tonight as the program's business correspondent.

Together with David Celdran, Oreña-Drilon was assigned to host Usapang Business, a business-oriented show which was soon cancelled due to low ratings.^[1] She later presented several news and public affairs programs for the ABS-CBN Network and for the ABS-CBN News Channel, including Pipol and The Correspondents. Since the 2000s, Oreña-Drilon has served as a co-anchor of the ABS-CBN flagship nightly news programs ABS-CBN Insider and Bandila.

In 2007, Oreña-Drilon was among several Filipino journalists covering the Manila Peninsula rebellion who were briefly detained by the Philippine military shortly after the mutiny was quashed.^[3]

[edit] Abduction

On June 10, 2008, ABS-CBN confirmed through a statement that Oreña-Drilon and news cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderrama had gone missing while in Sulu province.^[4] The announcement came several hours after Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune reported that the ABS-CBN news team had been kidnapped on June 8, 2008, by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, a terrorist organization with alleged links to Al-Qaeda.^[5] ABS-CBN requested that for "other media to report on this matter with utmost consideration for the safety of our news team", and to respect the families of the missing journalists.^[4]

They were intercepted on Sunday in Maimbung, Sulu, Jolo, by al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants led by armed men under Albader Parad, an Abu Sayyaf leader and Gapur Jundain, former member of the Moro National Liberation Front. Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, police regional director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, announced that:"Pinapakain naman sila [They are being fed well], they are well and alive, hindi sila nakatali [they are not tied] and nakakalabas sila [they are able to move around] but they are being escorted." Ransom were allegedly asked, ranging from P 10 million to P 30 million (227,000 and 454,000 dollars). Drilon is the third local journalist to be kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf since 2000.^[6]The Drilon team was invitated by Mindanao State University Muslim academic, Professor, Octavio Dinampo, who was also missing.^[7]

[edit] Criticism

ABS-CBN released on June 11, 2008 its official statement^[8] amid talks to free Ces and Paris-based media group Reporters Without Borders' criticism of the incident: "We hope that those who have abducted the journalists and their guide will hear the appeals being made on their behalf by many of the country's leading figures;Taking hostages is unacceptable. We call on all those could have any influence over the kidnappers to try to get Drilon and her colleagues released."^[9]