The suspect in the 2004 killing of radio broadcaster Herson Hinolan surrendered to the authorities on after a key witness retracted his earlier testimony against the suspect, according to the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
Alfredo Arcenio, a former mayor of Lezo town in Aklan, approximately 345 km south of Manila, surrendered to the Kalibo Regional Trial Court Branch on March 5, said Aklan regional police director Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. Arcenio was immediately turned over to the Aklan Rehabilitation Center, the local penal facility.
Hinolan was shot on November 13, 2004 outside a local carnival. Witnesses alleged that Arcenio did the shooting before he fled on a motorcycle driven by another man. Two days later, Hinolan died at a local hospital due to multiple gunshot wounds. Hinolan was the station manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo, where he hosted a programme called 'Bombohanay'.
Arcenio had been free despite an arrest warrant issued by the local court against him on September 7, 2006. Arcenio, who was a former intelligence officer of the army, had supposedly disguised himself as a woman. The police had offered a reward of P100,000 (approximately US$2,465) for his arrest while the department of justice had issued a hold departure order against him to prevent him from leaving the country.
Arcenio, who was accompanied by his lawyer Lou Tirol at the court, immediately filed a petition for bail. Although Arcenio is charged with a capital offense, bail could be granted if the evidence against him is weak.
Arcenio's surrender was preceded by the retraction of witness Peter Melgar, who submitted an affidavit of desistance on February, withdrawing the statement he gave in 2004 identifying Arcenio as the shooter.
According to Bombo Radyo Kalibo station manager Jan Allen Ascaño, Melgar stated in his retraction that he was not sure whether Arcenio was the shooter. After almost four years since the shooting, Melgar claims that it was a case of mistaken identity.
"I feel bad with what's happening to case," Hinolan's wife, Aphrodite, said. She said Arcenio could have paid off Melgar to retract his statement. Melgar has left the Department of Justice's Witness Protection Programme, Hinolan said.
Senior state prosecutor Leo Dacera of the Program said they lost contact with Melgar in February. Their last contact with Melgar was when he claimed his subsistence allowance from the Witness Protection Program.
Lawyer Napoleon Oducado, a private counsel in the Hinolan case, said in an interview with Bombo Radyo Kalibo that despite Melgar's retraction, the case against Arcenio remains strong because there is another eyewitness.
The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), a coalition of six media organisations formed in response to the tide of journalist killings, and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines filed a petition for a change of venue in February 2008 for the case of Hinolan and another Aklan-based reporter Rolando Ureta.
The petition for change of venue was filed in response to the reluctance of prosecution witnesses to come forward because of the clout and influence of the accused in the area. The safety of the complainants and the witnesses could also be compromised if the trial is held in Aklan.
The FFFJ members are the Centre for Community Journalism and Development, the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Philippine Press Institute, and the US-based newspaper Philippine News.
