DIPOLOG CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 5, 2013) – Police arrested a radio announcer in Dipolog City in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte, the media watchdog National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said.
It said the 50-year Rodolfo Tanquis, who has a talk show in radio station dxFL, has been detained Friday at the local jail after a police official, Reynaldo Maclang, accused him of libel.
The NUJP said policemen on Friday barged into the radio station and confronted Tanquis, who was eventually arrested.
It said one witness, Mitchel Bala, a colleague of Tanquis, said the announcer was interrupted in his talk show “Isyu Karon” by the arrival of policemen.
Tanquis allegedly criticized the failure of the police to stop the spate of killings in Dipolog.
The radioman was released from jail on Saturday. There was no immediate statement from Maclang, but the NUJP said regional police chief Juanito Vano, Jr. denied the reports and said Maclang did not arrest Tanquis, but just invited the radioman to the police station.
The incident was not included in the police journal sent to journalists. “We have no reports Dipolog police about that incident otherwise it would be in the (police) journal,” Insp. Ariel Huesca, a regional police spokesman, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
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