By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today
DAVAO CITY—The lawyers of jailed Davao broadcaster Alexander “Lex” Adonis filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court in Manila after the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) prison ignored a Court order for the broadcaster’s provisional release.
The petition was filed at 11:30 a.m. yesterday, May 30, with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the press freedom group Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) as co-petitioners.
“Although it is filed for and in behalf of Adonis, it was also filed in behalf of the media in a functioning democracy,” said Lawyer Harry Roque, one of the lawyers handling Adonis’s case. “Unless libel is decriminalized, the plight of Adonis will happen again and is likely to be used again, against press freedom,” he said.
The jailed broadcaster has already secured a May 26 court order for his provisional release after he posted bail for another libel case filed against him by TV personality Jeanette Lomanta-Leuterio.
But the Dapecol prison, where Adonis was detained, refused to release him, saying that they were still awaiting orders from the Bureau of Corrections (BOC) central office in Manila before they can release Adonis.
Leuterio’s case sprang from the same libel case that earned Adonis his conviction for libel. It was revived only when Adonis was granted discharge order for parole, having served six-month minimum term in prison.
Roque said there was no reason at all for Dapecol to hold Adonis.
“Dapecol’s holding Adonis is not justified,” Roque said after Venancio Tesoro, the regional director of the Bureau of Corrections (BOC), refused to release Adonis.
“He has no business arrogating unto himself judicial powers,” Roque said.
The NUJP has called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release Adonis but as of press time, the DOJ has not replied.
The Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) condemned Adonis’s continued detention, calling it a “continuing affront to press freedom.”
“It reflects the flawed justice system that too often leaves the rights of the Philippine press vulnerable to attack from powerful interests,” said Seapa, a free press advocacy group, in a statement.
According to Seapa, Adonis’ case only showed the “inherent danger” of the Philippine criminal defamation law. The group cited the complaint filed by Adonis before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, saying that “criminal defamation is excessive in its prescribed prison penalties, and is inevitably used to harass media practitioners.”
“No less a person than the Chief Justice of the Philippines has urged Philippine judges to mitigate the impact of the law by imposing fines instead of imprisonment in libel cases,” said Seapa, which joined in the call to decriminalize libel in the country.
“Criminal defamation has no place in a genuine democracy, and is in fact a threat to its principles and functioning.”
Earlier, Davao journalists had trooped to Dapecol on Monday, expecting Adonis to be freed, but went home disappointed.
“We thought we could already bring him home,” said Dodong Solis, the station manager of radio station DXDC, who was among the journalists working for the jailed broadcaster’s release. “We were so disappointed.”
In his order, Presiding Judge George Omelio of the RTC Branch 14, directed Dapecol to release Adonis after the broadcaster posted a cash bond of P5,000 for the case filed against him by Jeanette Lomanta-Leuterio.
Adonis was sentenced to a four and a half years in jail in February last year after Congressman (now House Speaker) Prospero Nograles filed a libel case against him for the series of Burlesque King expose, where according to Court records, he identified Nograles as the man running naked in a hotel after he was caught by his paramour’s husband inside a hotel room.
Adonis was already serving over six months in jail when the Bureau of Pardons and Parole ordered him discharged last year. However, Leuterio’s case made him ineligible for parole. (Germelina Lacorte/davaotoday.com)
