Newsbreak eds, writer post bail in Chavit libel

Four editors, including one who spent a night in jail, and a writer of Newsbreak magazine posted bail on Thursday morning, a day after they were ordered arrested over a libel case filed by Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit" Singson, QTV-11’s noon newscast Balitanghali reported. Newsbreak online editor Gemma Bagayaua posted bail Thursday morning after spending a night detained at the Pasig City police headquarters. Plainclothes lawmen arrested her in connection with a P100-million libel suit filed by Singson, who is also a senatorial candidate under the administration's Team Unity ticket. Police had gone to the Newsbreak office in Ortigas, Pasig on Wednesday afternoon to arrest the five Newsbreak staff members but only found Bagayaua. Others ordered arrested over Singson’s libel suit who also posted bail with the Pasig regional trial court on Thursday morning were Newsbreak editor in chief Maritess Danguilan-Vitug, former managing director Maan Hontiveros, business editor Lala Rimando, and staffwriter Aries Rufo. The four were required to turn themselves over to the Pasig police so they may be issued "certificates of the detention" before being allowed to post bail. Earlier, Bagayaua's P10,000 bail was not accepted by the clerk of court in Pasig City because the head of the police warrant department was not in his office to sign the papers for bail posting. The fate that befell Bagayaua caught the attention of Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros, a former television newscaster and elder sister of broadcast journalist Pia Hontiveros. In a statement, Hontiveros said: "In all honesty, Bagauaya and her fellow editors in Newsbreak did more to the country than the woman squatting in Malacañang right now." She added that, "brave women journalists like Bagauaya and Newsbreak editors Maritess Danguilan Vitug and Glenda Gloria deserve awards, not warrants of arrest." Speaking before hundreds of women from the Alliance of Progressive Labor and Akbayan for the commemoration of the Women's Day, Hontiveros also called on women voters to junk Singson, who is seeking a Senate seat under the administration's Team Unity. "The libel case he filed against Newsbreak was an assault to a tradition of truth that women journalists like Bagayaua, Gloria and Vitug honor – to take a stance that is uncompromising, because the truth demands nothing less," she said. Hontiveros then reminded Singson that it was the bravery of these women that toppled the Estrada administration in January 2001. "It was the likes of Chavit that moved the nation. It was the independence of women journalists and the courage of ordinary citizens that led to the ouster of Estrada." - GMANews.TV