Police continues to withhold name of reporter who allegedly aided Faledon’s escape

By Ronron
January 24, 2008

The Philippine National Police (PNP) continues to withhold the identity of the reporter who, according to them, facilitated the escape of Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon last November 29, 2007 at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City.

PNP spokesman Sr. Supt. Nicanor Bartolome said Thursday that they will only disclose the name of the reporter if their investigation is already completed and they are already ready to file charges.

He said they might also consider though the requirement that Faeldon should already be arrested when they reveal the reporter’s name. Earlier, PNP chief Dir. Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said they are intentionally withholding the name of the reporter because they have follow up operations to get Faeldon.

Told that a video footage of government station RPN-9 showed Dana Batnag of Jiji Press actually interacting with Faeldon inside the Manila Peninsula Hotel last November 29, Bartolome just said: “We are not mentioning names yet for now. And for the record, we have not named any names. The names that are coming out now came from the media.”

The video footage of RPN-9, which was submitted to the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group last December 11 in compliance with a subpoena, showed Batnag just talking to Faeldon.

Prior to Batnag, the names of Ellen Tordesillas of Malaya, Charmaine Deogracias of NHK, and Ces Drilon of ABS-CBN surfaced in the media as allegedly the reporter being referred by the PNP.

The four have denied the allegation.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) had criticized the PNP and the Department of Justice for apparently intimidating the media by threatening that the reporter, even if yet to be identified, will be charged with obstruction of justice and aiding/abetting an escaped felon.

But Bartolome said it is not their intention to leave such effect to the media.

“We maintain a policy of utmost support and cooperation with media, especially on matters of general public interest. We have high respect for journalists and the institution that they represent,” Bartolome said./DMS