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Alert

Journalist receives four and a half year prison sentence for article on congressman's alleged love affair

(CMFR/IFEX) - For failing to defend himself in court because he could not afford a lawyer, a radio broadcaster from Davao has been convicted of libel and is now serving time in jail. Davao is a province located south of Manila.

Libel is a criminal offence in the Philippines.

Alex Adonis, who used to be a commentator of the radio station dxMF Bombo Radyo (Booming Radio), was convicted of libel by Regional Trial Court Branch 17 Judge Renato Fuentes and sentenced to four years and six months in prison.

The libel case was filed by Davao First District Representative Prospero Nograles, who is also the house majority floor leader, in October 2001 over a report by Adonis. In the report, Adonis claimed that the congressman was seen running naked in a Manila Hotel shortly after the husband of a woman he was having an affair with caught them in bed. Nograles denied the allegation.

Fuentes, however, acquitted Adonis' co-defendant Dan Vicente, the station manager of Bombo Radyo in General Santos, a province of South Cotabato, located south of Davao.

The online publication "Mindanao Times" reported that Fuentes absolved Vicente due to the death of the prosecution's primary witness, who heard the broadcast.

Adonis, who has spent 18 years in the media industry, failed to defend himself in court and the verdict against him was promulgated in absentia. He was arrested by the police in the Bangkerohan Public Market of Davao City while he was visiting his mother on 19 February 2007.

Davaotoday, an online publication, reported that financial woes were a major factor in Adonis' conviction. Adonis, who has a wife and two daughters, had been living on a monthly salary of P7,500 (approx. US$150). In 2004, he was reassigned to Bombo Radyo in Cagayan de Oro, 500 kilometers from Davao.

Adonis also had difficulty travelling back and forth from Cagayan de Oro to Davao, a seven hours bus trip, for his work and court trial.

"To attend hearings, I had to finish [the] radio program before I left Cagayan de Oro that same evening, so I would arrive in Davao at 8:00 am the next day, in time for the 9:00 am hearing of the case. Afterwards, I had to rush back to Cagayan de Oro again in time for my radio program that same day at 6:30 in the evening," Adonis said.

"Sometimes I couldn't even afford the bus fare to Davao." Adonis then disappeared from the radio station in 2005 and was declared absent without leave, prompting his lawyer, whom Bombo Radyo claims they hired, to withdraw from the case. Without money to pay for another lawyer, Adonis stopped attending the hearings altogether.

Adonis also said that he had wanted to apologize to Nograles but was hindered by Bombo Radyo.

Bombo Radyo, however, issued a three-part statement published in the "Mindanao Daily Mirror" disputing Adonis' claim.

"Adonis should not blame Bombo Radyo, his former employer, for his conviction. He only has himself to blame for his woes. His allegations that he was not allowed to make a public apology to Congressman Nograles and that Bombo Radyo did not support him in his case are preposterous.

"These claims are pure lies concocted by him to gain public sympathy at the expense of his former employer, who supported him and his co-accused from day one of the case," Bombo Radyo said in the statement.

"Without questioning the merits of the case or the court's decision, Adonis' case shows what happens to broadcasters who can't afford to hire lawyers but dare criticize a high-ranking government official, who has all the backing of power," said Dodong Solis, manager of dxDC radio station in Davao.

"It was not so much that Lex Adonis had criticized Nograles on the air," Solis said. "It was more of Lex Adonis being poor, that he was not able to make full use of the privileges normally accorded by the law to citizens like him that he ended up where he is now."

Upon hearing the decision in January, Nograles expressed delight. "That's good news," he said when informed of the decision.