Newsbreak editor: Jailtime won't silence me

Instead of intimidating her, spending her wedding anniversary in police detention only served to embolden Newsbreak online editor Gemma Bagauaya. Bagauaya said early Thursday she will continue to expose wrongdoings, adding that the libel case against her was just a hazard of the trade. "I'll continue to write. We expected this as part of the hazards of the trade. So long as there are stories to be told, I'll write them," she told dzBB radio in Filipino on Thursday morning. She added that she and other editors have been "very careful" about what they write and that they have tried to get all sides of the story. Bagauaya said the police treated her well during her stay at the Pasig City police headquarters. She thanked her colleagues in media for supporting her. Radio station dzBB reported Bagauaya spent the night at the warrant section on the third floor. Last Wednesday afternoon, plainclothes Pasig City policemen arrested her Wednesday afternoon over a P100-million libel suit filed by administration senatorial candidate Luis "Chavit" Singson. Maritess Danguilan Vitug, Newsbreak's editor-in-chief, said she and Bagayaua's lawyer went to a Quezon City court Wednesday afternoon but failed to post bail because the court's cashier left early at 4 p.m. and the night court also closed early at 6 p.m. Bagayaua said she was the only one of the five to be arrested who was inside the Newsbreak office at the Tektite Towers along Exchange Road in Pasig City. Officers and members of media groups led by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, National Press Club (NPC), Alyansa ng Filipinong Mamamahayag and the Association of Responsible Media gathered Wednesday night in front of the Pasig police headquarters and lighted candles to demand for the early release of Bagayaua. NUJP chair Jose Torres Jr said Bagayaua's arrest violated an agreement between the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police, which required lawmen to coordinate first with the NPC before they arrest journalists. - GMANews.TV