Cheche Lazaro avoids arrest, posts bail over wiretapping case

MANILA, Philippines - Broadcast journalist Cecilia Cheche Lazaro posted a P12,500 bail on Friday to avoid arrest stemming from a wiretapping case filed against her in 2008. Lazaro was accused by Government Service Insurance System Vice President Ella E. Valencerina of violating the anti-wiretapping law after airing parts of their phone conversation on her TV program Probe". The veteran journalist posted bail at the Pasay Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 47 after the court issued a warrant for her arrest on Thursday. Several of Lazaro's production staff members as well as concerned teachers, accompanied her in Pasay City. In an earlier statement, Lazaro bemoaned the case lodged against her by Valencerina. "It is mind-boggling why I am being singled out for prosecution for following the tenets of responsible journalism," Lazaro said. The Probe episode entitled, "Perwisyong Benepisyo" that was aired over ABS-CBN last Nov. 12, showed a video of Lazaro talking with Valencerina on the phone. Valencerina, who also heads GSIS Public Relations and Communications Office, said Lazaro aired their conversation without her consent, and that the airing violated Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Act. Lazaro has maintained that she asked Velencerinas permission prior to the interview and stressed that she did not commit ethical violations in journalism. "If raising the concerns of underpaid public school teachers deprived of their benefits by a publicly accountable government institution and giving my accuser the airtime to explain her boss' side of the story are now considered crimes under our laws, then I plead guilty," Lazaro said. According to Court records, Probe decided to produce a feature or episode on the Premium-Based Policy in November 2008, implemented by the GSIS. Under this policy, entitlement on the GSIS is based on the actual premium payments made instead of the length of service of the government employee concerned. Teachers who were members of the GSIS complained that the policy "had unfairly deprived them of the benefits that they were entitled to, through no fault of their own as they had no control over the regularity of their premium payments." This was because such payments were not made by them directly but by the Department of Education, through deductions from their monthly salaries, the court record added. Meanwhile, Lazaro said the case against her is just a small price to pay" for bringing the issue out in the open. Probe will not be intimidated into submission. I just wish my accuser will play fair and hire private lawyers instead of using government lawyers (from the GSIS), whose salaries are incidentally paid for by, among others, the teachers shortchanged by the questionable policy of the GSIS and private citizens like me who pay taxes.," she said. - Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV