Crisis: National

Inquirer  publisher, editors post bail for libel
THE PUBLISHER and seven editors of the Philippine Daily Inquirer were detained for an hour at a Manila Police Station on March 20 after a Manila court issued warrants of arrest for a P22-million libel charge. The case was filed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Publisher Isagani Yambot and the editors were released after posting a libel bond of P50,000.   Libel is a criminal offense in the Philippines.
Judge Virgilio Alameda of Branch 10 of the Manila Regional Trial Court had ordered the arrest of Yambot, editor-in-chief Letty Jimenez Magsanoc, managing editor Jose Ma. Nolasco, associate editor Abelardo Ulanday, associate editor for readership Rosario Garcellano, news editor Artemio Engracia Jr., opinion editor Jorge Aruta, national editor Pergentino Bandayrel Jr., senior desk editor Juan Sarmiento Jr., and columnist Ramon Tulfo after he found “probable cause” in the libel complaint of Arroyo.
Arroyo has also sued the publisher, editor in chief, associate editor, and circulation manager of the Inquirer’s sister publication, the tabloid Bandera, along with Tulfo.
Tulfo’s columns linked Arroyo to the alleged smuggling activities of businessmen Sammy Lim, and Vicky and Thomas Toh. Reports have romantically linked Arroyo to Vicky.
Yambot described Arroyo’s libel suit against the Inquirer as part of Arroyo’s attempt “to muzzle the press, hoping to produce a chilling effect.”
“There was unusual haste in this particular case. It was the first time the justice system worked so fast,” Yambot said.
Arroyo has filed 11 libel suits against 46 journalists. CMFR, along with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, The Daily Tribune, and several editors and reporters filed on Dec. 28, 2006 a P 12.5-million class action suit against Arroyo for his numerous libel suits against the press. The plaintiffs in the class action suit invoked Articles 19, 20, 21, and 32 of the Philippine Civil Code and said that Arroyo had violated press freedom and abused his right to sue.
Arroyo has claimed that he is not a public figure and should not be subjected to media scrutiny.
A ruling by Manila Judge Zenaida Daguna on March 8, 2007, however, contradicts Arroyo’s claim. Daguna dismissed Arroyo’s libel complaint against former solicitor general Frank Chavez and said that Arroyo is the “First Gentleman of the Republic of the Philippines. It cannot be denied that he is a public figure.”
Arroyo had sued Chavez after the former solicitor general was quoted in news reports as linking the president’s husband to the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in the Department of Agriculture. The fund was allegedly used for the election campaign of his wife in 2004.

Radio station van bombed
AN UNIDENTIFIED person on board a motorcycle threw a bomb at the service vehicle of dxCC (828kHz), a radio station of the Radio Mindanao Network in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, at dawn on March 13.
The van was parked in front of the station when the unknown assailant lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the vehicle’s window. No one was reported hurt in the incident, but the bomb destroyed the van and damaged another vehicle, a motorcycle and the station sign.
Jac Gumapac, a commentator for the radio station, said the radio station received threats almost every week. Before the bombing incident, dxCC station manager Saldy Ocon, who is also a political commentator in the station as well as a city councilor, had received a death threat via text message.

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