Tuesday, October 03, 2006 2 block-timers freed, gagged By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A CRIMINAL case for extortion with grave threats was filed yesterday against the two block-time broadcasters caught in an entrapment receiving money from a government official last Friday.
Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon downgraded the original complaint of robbery with extortion filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against the two, saying the evidence the agency cited only supported the filing of the lesser charge.
The two were released after paying P4,000 each as bail.
Sellon recommended that bail be set at P2,000 each but Municipal Trial Court in Cities Judge Oscar Andrino made them pay double.
Andrino was irked that the two, assisted by a bondsman, paid bail even before the records of the case reached his sala. “There is only one judge here and it is the judge that sets the bail,” Andrino was heard as saying.
A court employee explained that prosecutors recommend bail but it is the judge that grants it. Thus, paying the amount of bail recommended by the prosecutor before the judge is given the chance to set the amount is akin to bypassing a judge’s authority on the matter.
Assistant City Prosecutor Patrick Osorio, who handled the inquest investigation, said the crime of robbery with extortion could not be filed against the two because it was not shown that the two employed force and intimidation in carrying out the extortion.
No threat
“It’s not like those previous cases involving policemen who extort money from the family of people arrested for drugs. Here, there was no threat of imprisonment or harm,” he said.
He also explained why bail was set only at P2,000 each when the amount the two allegedly extorted from Philippine Reclamation Authority Director Elberto Emphasis reached P20,000.
Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code, covering grave threats, prescribes the penalty to be “the next lower in degree” for the crime threatened to be committed.
“In this case, the threat was that they would continue to air libelous material against the private complainant,” Osorio said.
Moral
And since Article 356 of the same code imposes the penalty of libel as prision correccional in its minimum and medium period, then penalty next lower in degree is arresto mayor, which is one month and one day to six months.
“The moral of the story is that a media practitioner can be corrupt so long as he has P2,000 for bail,” an NBI agent quipped. But while they two were temporarily out of jail, a new complaint was lodged against them at the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor.
Ligas
Edward Ligas, once a commissioner of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, filed the complaint that narrated how he was the subject of numerous attacks by the two in their program over radio dyLA.
He said the two accused him of making money from small business owners and identified him as one of Emphasis’ bata-bata. Moreover, he said, the two also accused him of receiving P2 million as operation funds against Port of Cebu Customs Collector Ricardo Belmonte.
“I have been assisting the urban poor for almost two decades and I am not asking personal support nor get money from them… Indeed, (the) port area is considered to be my territory as almost all the trisikad drivers and vendors belong to my group but I (have) never transacted any business at the Bureau of Customs,” he said.
Ligas’ case isn’t the only complaint pending against Cortez and Solon before the prosecution service.
The two broadcasters are also facing preliminary investigation before the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor over the libel complaint filed against them by Rhett Minguez of Bogo, Cebu.
The two, he said, accused him of embezzling money and using it to buy land and other properties.
The two have filed a counter-affidavit but Minguez, through his lawyers, submitted rejoinders, urging that the complaint be upgraded into a formal criminal case.
Cortez and Solon walked out of the Palace of Justice close to 5 p.m. yesterday.
Solon said they have decided to “lie low” for a while, adding that they aren’t going to question Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s decision to drop him from his block-time program over radio dyLA.
Solon also admitted that Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr., who operates radio dyDD, has issued orders to restrict them from going on air until an internal inquiry is conducted.
But they both reiterated their innocence.
“We never asked him (Emphasis) for money. It was he who came to us,” Cortez said in an interview with reporters. He said there was never any talk of money.
NBI version
The claim is debunked by entries in a transcript the NBI made of the SMS messages Cortez, by cellular telephone, sent to a cellular telephone confiscated from Solon.
The transcript is attached to the complaint and is now part of the records of the case.
An entry, dated Sept. 29, 2006 and time-stamped 14:53:36 (2:53 p.m.), recorded in Solon’s phone and sent from Cortez’s number, admonished Solon and spoke of P20,000 coming their way.
Another entry, again from Cortez, informed Solon to “prioritize” the money.
The remaining entries narrated that he was already on his way to SM, where the entrapment took place.
The final entry, time-stamped 17:40:10 (5:40 p.m.), reflected Cortez mentioning they had either hit across money or become subject of an entrapment.
