Broadcaster jailed for libel

CMFR/Philippines—A provincial radio commentator has now spent over a week in jail after being arrested on 22 January 2008 for failing to attend his libel case hearings. No bail was recommended for his imprisonment.

Julito “Lito” Ucab, a freelance radio commentator in Cagayan de Oro, is now behind bars in the Butuan City Jail for failure to attend his court hearings on the libel case filed against him in 2004 for his commentaries on an alleged involvement of a government employee in a rape incident. Butuan city is a province approximately 790 km south of Manila.

Ucab failed to attend his court hearings since 2006 when he was granted provisional liberty by the court after posting P20, 000 ($490.32) for bail.

Ucab was formerly based in Butuan city, where the libel case was filed. He was arrested in the nearby province of Cagayan de Oro, where he transferred in 2006, and sent back to Butuan city for his imprisonment.

The libel case was filed by a former employee of the Butuan City Hall’s City Architect Office in 2004, The charge stemmed from Ucab’s commentaries on the complainant’s alleged involvement in the rape of a household helper.

Ucab, according to Cagayan de Oro Press Club president Jerry Orcullo, allowed a certain household helper in his program at dxBC, a Butuan City-based radio station which is an affiliate of Radio Mindanao Network, to air accusations of rape over the local government official. Ucab was with dxBC as a commentator and program manager.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) operatives in Misamis Oriental served the alias warrant of arrest, which the court issues when an accused has consistently neglected court hearings, in Cagayan de Oro, where Ucab resides. Ucab works as a blocktimer at dxCO Radyo Banat in Cagayan de Oro prior to his arrest.

Libel is a criminal offense in the Philippines. Since the early 1990s, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility has been campaigning for the decriminalization of libel. Crippling fines and the threat of imprisonment in criminal libel have been repeatedly used by powerful individuals to harass and intimidate the press.

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