Court decides: Radio broadcaster found guilty of libel

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The Regional Trial Court-branch 38 has found a radio block time broadcaster guilty beyond reasonable doubt of libel and has ordered him to pay penalty fees and moral damages amounting to more than P30,000.

RTC Judge Cenon Voltaire Repollo, in his 7-page decision handed down on Wednesday, ordered Johnny Cahilog, alias Rex Santos, to pay a penalty fee of P3,000 and subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.

Repollo also ordered Cahilog, host of the radio block time program “Kandos,” aired over Power 91 DyGB-FM, to pay P30,000 in moral damages to Nekane Llanderal Gobonseng, wife of Mark Gobonseng, both of whom had filed the libel case against Cahilog.

The case stemmed from some remarks that Cahilog, popularly known as Kandos, made during his regular program on December 6, 2011 regarding the raid conducted by the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, then headed by Rayford Yap, at the hotel owned by the Gobonseng couple.

Records show that the PDEA operatives raided a room at the Ang Barko Traveller’s Lounge in Barangay Looc where some alleged drug pushers were holed out.

Cahilog, in a telephone interview Friday, said he will appeal the case in Cebu, as early as next week, through his legal counsel, Jun Maxell Orlina.

He refused to further comment on the court’s decision but vowed that regardless of  the  outcome of  the libel case against him, this will not sway him from continuing with his program to fearlessly report on and discuss issues and concerns affecting the community. (FREEMAN)