Dipolog blocktimer arrested, house and radio station shot at (UPDATED)

UPDATE:

On 22 July 2013, Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) legal counsel Prima Quinsayas e-mailed CMFR to comment on the Dipolog City prosecutor’s letter to the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). In his letter to CJFE, the prosecutor defended the city’s former chief of police’s warrantless arrest of a blocktimer for libel last 3 May 2013, World Press Freedom Day.

Dipolog City in Mindanao Island is some 1,300 kilometers south of Manila.

“The reply of the Dipolog City Prosecutor borders on the absurd and, if left unchallenged, may set a dangerous precedent,” Quinsayas said.

Quinsayas added that the letter was implying that the arresting officer can bypass the investigative prosecutor or judge in defining what libel is.

“What is libelous is for an investigating prosecutor to appreciate AFTER the conduct of a preliminary investigation. Its commission is something only a trial judge can rule on after trial on the merits.”

The arrested blocktimer, Rodolfo Tanquis, told CMFR last 23 July 2013 that his lawyer has filed a  motion for the dismissal of the libel case against him, but that the city prosecutor responded with a request for 15 days to deliberate on the motion.

City Prosecutor’s letter

On 28 May 2013, Dipolog’s Office of the City Prosecutor wrote to one of the signatories in International Freedom of Expression eXchange’s (IFEX) appeal, the CJFE, that after an investigation, the office had concluded that the former police chief’s warrantless arrest of Tanquis, a radio blocktimer, was valid under Philippines Rules of Court.

(Read more about blocktime practice in the Philippines here.)

“The arrest without warrant…was validly made as (Tanquis) was caught in flagrante by (former Dipolog police chief Reynaldo Maclang)…probable cause exist to indict (Tanquis) for the crime of Libel and he is probably guilty thereof, hence, an information for Libel was filed against him now pending trial,” the City Prosecutor’s letter said.

The letter was in response to the copy of the appeal sent to Department of Justice (DOJ) Action Center by CFJE via e-mail last 14 May 2013, which was then endorsed to the Ombudsman for Military and other Law Enforcement Offices by the DOJ Action Center last 17 May 2013.

[field name=DOJ_reply]

CMFR’s call for action

On 6 May 2013, CMFR wrote the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to take necessary action against Maclang’s arrest of Tanquis.

DILG Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas III sent a letter dated 9 May 2013 in response, assuring that he had “asked (PNP) Director General (DG) Alan Purisima to cause an exhaustive, fair and objective investigation of the incident by an independent fact-finding team … The PNP DG shall report back to me soonest, with recommendations as to any culpable police officers and the charges to be filed against them, criminally and administratively.”

In a separate letter, 18 members of the global free expression network IFEX urged President Benigno Aquino III to “file the necessary charges against Maclang.” (Read more about the appeal here.)

The President through executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. replied to IFEX’s appeal last 17 May 2013, saying that “steps have already been taken by the (DILG) and the Department of Justice to address the concerns … and that the Office of the President will work closely with the said agencies that are looking into the incident to ensure that justice is served.”

[field name=appeal_2_scribd]

Next Page>>