ABS-CBN to air kidnap story

MANILA, Philippines – Television network ABS-CBN said yesterday that the airing of the documentary on the kidnapping of its senior reporter Ces Drilon, her crew and a Muslim professor will go on as scheduled tonight at 10 p.m., despite the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to postpone its showing.

ABS-CBN senior vice president for news and current affairs Maria Ressa said they have already turned over to police and government authorities the video footages of the kidnapping used for the documentary.

“So it’s time for the public to see the documentary because it’s imbued with public interest,” Ressa explained.

Lawyers of ABS-CBN stressed that there is no legal impediment for the network to air the documentary since the case has not yet been filed in any court.

“Technically, the sub judice principle cannot be invoked to stop its airing,” the lawyers pointed out. 

Ressa said the ABS-CBN video footages were given to concerned authorities a week after Drilon and her two cameramen were freed so that these could be presented as prosecution evidence.

The DOJ prosecution panel, however, requested ABS-CBN to postpone showing the documentary until after the case has been resolved.

The DOJ prosecution panel, led by Senior State Prosecutor Emilie de los Santos, asked Drilon’s private lawyers to convey its position to the network.

“It’s not fair,” said De los Santos of the network’s airing of the documentary tonight.

ABS-CBN has been plugging the documentary titled “Kidnap” on the abduction of Drilon, her cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, and Mindanao State University Prof. Octavio Dinampo in Sulu last June 8 that lasted 10 days.

De los Santos said ABS-CBN had formally turned over to the prosecution panel a copy of the video footages taken by Encarnacion during their captivity.

Authorities said the showing of the video footages would somehow set the mind of the public on the issue and create “undue pressure on the prosecution panel handling the case.”

On the first day of the preliminary investigation, the prosecution panel held a closed-door proceeding for the showing of the video footages on request of Senior Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel, chief investigator of the case, citing the ongoing operations for the arrest of the other kidnappers.

De los Santos also asked both the prosecution and the defense not to leak the video footages to the media until after the resolution of the case of kidnapping for ransom against Indanan, Sulu Mayor Alvarez Isnaji, his son Haider, and several other suspects identified only by their aliases.

In the continuation of the preliminary investigation, Senior Superintendent Winnie Quidato, undercover agent in the negotiations for the release of the hostages, maintained that the Isnajis directly collaborated with the kidnappers for the payment of ransom.

Quidato told the prosecution panel that he and Sulu Vice Gov. Lady Ann Sahidullah delivered a P5-million ransom to the house of the Isnajis.

He said the mayor himself told him that he gave only P2 million to the kidnappers and noted that he did not see the kidnappers because the younger Isnaji was the one who delivered the money.

Quidato added that he did not know about the second ransom of still undetermined amount, apparently negotiated with the victims’ families by the Isnajis without his knowledge.

He said he was instructed by Haider to stay in an area, as he would proceed to the kidnappers to deliver the second ransom.

“Haider told us to stay as their convoy proceeded to deliver the second batch of ransom, and after about 20 to 30 minutes they returned with the hostages,” Quidato added.

Meanwhile, Drilon told the panel that during their captivity Dinampo was never maltreated, harmed or threatened by the kidnappers.

“I can’t say for sure if he (Dinampo) was involved in the kidnappings, he could have been treated well because of his age and his being a Muslim and a Tausug,” she said.

After they were released, Drilon said they were taken to the house of Mayor Isnaji where she waited for her relatives, and Quidato later took them to the military headquarters in Zamboanga.

She said the authorities had asked her to undergo medical examination prompted by apprehensions that her kidnappers molested her. “I told them I was not molested,” she said. – Marichu Villanueva, Cecille Suerte Felipe