Ex-mayor sentenced to 14 years in jail for broadcast journalist’s death

CEBU CITY—A former municipal mayor bowed his head and closed his eyes while the decision of the court was being read on Wednesday morning.

But former Mayor Alfredo Arsenio of Lezo town in Aklan opened his eyes and looked at Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga in disbelief after hearing that he had just been meted 14 years imprisonment for the death of a broadcast journalist in his hometown.

The former mayor was originally charged with murder for killing Herson Hinolan, Bombo Radyo station manager on Nov. 13, 2004.

But Judge Paderanga of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16 downgraded the charge to homicide, saying there were no sufficient evidence to prove two important elements of murder: treachery and premeditation.

Arsenio, 64, was meted a jail term of eight to 14 years and eight months in prison and was ordered to pay at least P237,500 to the heirs of the victim.

Arsenio declined to answer questions after the promulgation.

“I will not answer. I’ll let my lawyer do it,” he told the Inquirer as he was being escorted by jail guards out of the courtroom.

The court verdict was a bittersweet for Hinolan’s widow.

“We would have wanted the court to impose a heavier penalty but 14 years in jail for him (Mayor Arsenio) is fine,” she said.

“At least justice was served for my husband, unlike other journalists who got killed but are still chasing justice until now. This is better than to wait for nothing,” she added.

The broadcaster was urinating on a wall near a carnival in the capital town of Kalibo, Aklan on Nov. 13, 2004 when he was shot.

He managed to run but a man later identified by witnesses as Arsenio chased the victim and shot him several times.

The broadcaster suffered 10 gunshot wounds on the body.

Before he was killed, Hinolan criticized Arsenio because of his alleged involvement in illegal cockfights.

In 2008, the Supreme Court granted the petition of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) to transfer the venue of the trial along with the case of another slain journalist Rolando Ureta from the Kalibo RTC in Aklan to the Cebu City RTC “to avoid miscarriage of justice and to dispel the impression that a culture of impunity encouraged by government inaction marked the Philippines the ‘most murderous place for journalists’.”

The FFFJ, a coalition of six media organizations, said that because of the clout and influence of the accused in the area, witnesses were reluctant to testify for fear of retaliation.

In 2014, Judge Paderanga also convicted Amador Raz, one of the two men who killed Ureta, program director and commentator of radio station dyIN on Jan. 3, 2001, for homicide.

The other suspect Jessie Ticar surrendered in 2007 but died the following year after he fell ill.

Arsenio, who has been detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) for eight years, is expected to be transferred to the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog town, Leyte where he will serve the remaining six years.

The court said the period of detention which the accused already served shall be credited in the service of the penalty imposed against him.

Arsenio may file a motion for reconsideration or an appeal to a higher court to overturn the decision of Paderanga.