Saturday, September 30, 2006
2 Cebu radio hosts nabbed
By Karlon N. Rama
CEBU CITY -- Two block-time broadcasters who survived a shooting three years ago were caught in an entrapment Friday, after allegedly extorting and receiving money from a government executive.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) took Reynante "Rey" Cortez and Lito "Bing-bong" Solon into custody inside a crowded restaurant in the SM Cebu City mall. They did not resist arrest.
Undersecretary Elberto Emphasis, head of the Philippine Reclamation Authority, filed the complaint that led to the entrapment. He said the two demanded that he pay them P20,000 so that they'd cease attacking him on air.
He confirmed that the two used to see him regularly when he was still in the private sector, asking him for "small amounts" here and there, but said he stopped the practice when he was appointed to his government post.
Cortez and Solon co-anchor block-time radio programs over stations dyDD and dyLA.
As block-timers, they buy airtime and produce their own shows, independent of the station's management. They shoulder the cost of their production by doing their own marketing for advertisements and by soliciting from sponsors.
Attacked
They grabbed the headlines in 2003 when they, while walking towards their parked vehicle after a visit to the Bureau of Customs (BOC), were shot by a still unidentified assailant.
Cortez was hit in the leg, while Solon was unscathed.
Cebu Vice Governor Greg Sanchez, who operates radio dyDD, spoke to the two broadcasters over the telephone after the arrest.
Marit Stinus-Remonde, who manages dyLA, was separately informed.
The two block-timers were brought to the NBI headquarters after their arrest and immediately subjected to a forensic examination.
Both denied accepting money from Emphasis and alleged that they were set up by the official, who allegedly wanted to protect certain people at the Bureau of Customs.
They said these same people, including Emphasis, had been the subject of their relentless attacks aimed at "ridding" the bureau of corrupt men and women.
They stressed that it was Emphasis who asked them to meet him at SM so that Emphasis could, purportedly, air his side of the controversy.
Money
And before the meeting could come to a close, they said, Emphasis handed them the money.
"I told him I won't accept that so he gave it to Solon," Cortez said in Cebuano.
Solon, in an interview after the test, admitted that he tested positive for the special powder that the NBI uses on money used in entrapment operations. But he also said it wasn't because he accepted the amount.
He said that traces of the powder were left in his hands when Emphasis shoved the money, contained in an envelope, his way -- but he tried to push the official's hand away.
NBI agents, however, contradicted this.
Agent Rey Villordon, who shadowed the duo while their meeting with Emphasis unfolded, said that Solon received the money from Emphasis, peeked at the envelope briefly, and shoved it in his pocket. The other agents gave similar accounts.
And when agents surreptitiously approached to announce the arrest, Solon slipped the envelope out of his trouser pocket and tossed it to the floor.
Complaint
But both broadcasters were adamant in their denial, adding that they couldn't have extorted money from Emphasis because, other than today, they had never met nor spoken before.
He said it was even Sun.Star reporter and dyDD program host Elias O. Baquero who acted as the intermediary between them, making the meeting possible.
Baquero, in a separate interview, denied this. He said he didn't even know that the entrapment was going to take place, explaining that his only contact with all three persons was about two weeks ago, when Emphasis requested him to ask Cortez and Solon why they kept attacking him on the air.
Baquero hosts a news and commentary program over dyDD.
Emphasis, in his complaint before the NBI, said that Cortez and Solon have been attacking him relentlessly for weeks now. He said he found out about it two weeks ago.
He went to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to get official recordings of the broadcast and filed a complaint before the KBP.
However, he said, the KBP tossed the complaint aside because dyDD, the station where the commentaries were aired, wasn't a member of the organization.
Lambasted
Moreover, the two broadcasters are not KBP-accredited and, therefore, not subject to the KBP's Standards Authority.
Emphasis said he was instead endorsed back to the NTC and was about to file his complaint there when he received calls from Solon three days ago, asking for a meeting.
It was in this conversation that the alleged demand for the P20,000 was made.
Emphasis said he decided to bring the matter to the attention of the NBI, explaining that even if he paid, which he stressed he had no intention of doing, there wasn't any guarantee that the two would give him any peace.
He recounted an incident in 2004, when the two allegedly first made him the subject of relentless assaults on the air. He said he filed a complaint before the KBP then but it was eventually settled through the intercession of Ed Abad and Bobby Nalzaro, of ABC 21 and GMA 7, respectively. Abad and Nalzaro are KBP officials.
After the settlement, Emphasis alleged, the two were back on air again, lambasting him unceasingly. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(September 30, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
'Milenyo' death toll rises to 48 with dozens missing