Catch me if you can on Friday night

“If you call your opponent a politician, it’s grounds for libel.”

–Mark Russell

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHEN our media colleague Manuel “Boy” Mejorada was arrested by police on June 7, 2019 for cyberlibel, it was a Friday night.

Mejorada would have been immediately hauled to jail if he wasn’t brought to the St. Paul’s Hospital in Iloilo City when his blood pressure shot up.

Unlike former broadcaster and alleged fake news peddler Jay Sonza, who had to spend three nights inside the jail after being arrested on April 30, 2026, a Friday night, by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Quezon City regarding a cyberlibel case for allegedly spreading false information and fake medical records regarding President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.'s health.

We find the timing of the arrest of both Mejorada and Sonza, as well as other fellow journalists, pernicious and malicious. Arresting officers are aware we can’t post bail if we are cornered on a Friday night.

 

-o0o-

 

I had my own share of nightmare engaging arresting police officers in a cat and mouse chase for trying to get me on a Friday night when the court ordered my arrest for libel as editor in the past.

Luckily, I wasn’t home when the arresting officers came to “fetch” me.

Since libel is a criminal case in the Philippines, it’s a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the cops to put a cuff on the accused while he is being brought behind bars.

Thank God I missed the metal bracelets in all the warrants of arrest issued for the 38 counts of libel filed by the plaintiff, “The People of the Philippines,” against me, our late former Sun.Star Iloilo Daily publisher, Marcos “Mark” Villalon, and columnist Wenceslao “Mat” Mateo way back in 1999, or 27 years ago.

My sore eyes infection was starting to develop when I learned that the first warrant of arrest had been issued by the RTC Branch 25 and cops were coming to get me on a Friday.

Thus, I decided to quietly spend a night at Bahay Kubo, a rented hut in Calumpang, Molo, Iloilo City.

A police mugshot of yours truly would have yielded two awful but “beautiful red eyes.”

Thank God we beat to the draw all the other upcoming warrants of arrest by immediately posting bail after being tipped off by the Good Samaritans inside the Hall of Justice.

 

-o0o-

 

What happened to Mejorada and Sonza should serve as a warning to all those charged with a criminal case: avoid being arrested on a Friday.

If an accused in a criminal case is arrested end of the regular week after office hours, he has no more chance to post bail in court for his temporary freedom.

He will have to spend at least three nights and two days in jail while waiting for Monday during office hours.

In 1993, veteran Iloilo columnists Herbert Vego and the late Teddy Sumaray chose to spend overnight “as a matter of principle” inside the Iloilo City Police Office detention cell rather than posting a bail of P10,000 each for the libel case filed by the late lawyer-publisher Fraulin Penasales.

Friends and the late Panay News publisher Danny Fajardo helped “avert” another harrowing night in the calaboose for the two bespectacled senior editors.

In libel cases, the showdown vis-a-vis the prosecution panel during the actual trial of the case doesn’t scare us practicing journalists; it even excites us, modesty aside, like we are nominees in the Oscar Awards.

We believe that libel–the crime of destroying a person’s reputation by publicity–is hard to prove under the Philippine laws because it requires the presence of all four elements: malice, publication, defamation, and identification.

What’s unsettling if we get caught by arresting police on a Friday is the prospect of being harassed and bullied, and having to sleep side by side the hardened criminals and notorious fiends inside a crowded detention cell.

 

-o0o-

 

THESE ARE THE 10 NEW SUPERFOODS. The superstars -- blueberries, almonds, tomatoes, flaxseeds, broccoli, red wine, salmon, olive oil, edamame, brown rice. The understudy -- strawberries, peanuts, white button mushrooms, beer, sunflower seeds, cauliflower, trout, safflower oil, black beans, barley. (Source: Sally Kuzemchak, R.D., Fitness: Mind, Body + Spirit)

OUTSMARTING A SNACK ATTACK. Eating two small snacks a day can help us lose weight. Trouble is, research shows that we're munching more than ever before--choosing foods that are high in calories and fat--and packing on the pounds as a result. "Often we're not even hungry, but because we're surrounded by food, we're tempted to eat anyway," says Kerry Neville, Ph.D. of American Dietetic Assn.

'YOU'RE A PIG.' Don't feel bad if an adversary or critic will call you a pig. Ronald Reagan, like George Bush and Bill Clinton, was also called a pig but he retorted, "I am very proud to be called a pig. It stands for Pride, Integrity and Guts."

STAND UP BEFORE TOUCHING THE TOILET HANDLE. One in three people flush while sitting down. If we are one of them, let us consider this: When we flush, droplets of water spray in the air. That means we can be exposed to bacteria, which increases our risk of getting a urinary tract infection (UTI). (Source: Soap and Water & Common Sense.)

POWERFUL GRASS. God wants us to live like the grass. In spite of being stepped on, crushed, burned, or cut, it always persists and grow back...even greener and stronger. A blessed week to everyone.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

Iloilo lawyers in past impeachment trials

“The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.”

—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

FOR the record, when the late former Iloilo City congressman and justice secretary Raul M. Gonzalez served as one of the 11 prosecutors from the House of Representatives in the impeachment trial of then Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada in December 2000, he brought with him Iloilo-based lawyer Daniel Cartagena to act as private attorney to assist with legal strategy and litigation.

Senate impeachment rules allow private lawyers to provide expert support to the House prosecutors, but the formal, legal responsibility for prosecuting the case rests with the appointed members of the House of Representatives.

Cartagena did appear with then Rep. Gonzalez during the Estrada impeachment trial, thus making him one of the three Ilonggo lawyers to participate in the historic trial.

Estrada was ousted in EDSA II (the Second EDSA Revolution) on January 20, 2001during the collapse of his impeachment trial when senator-judges refused to open a crucial envelope containing evidence of corruption on January 16, 2001.

The other Ilonggo lawyers in the Estrada impeachment trial, aside from Cartagena, were congressman-prosecutor Gonzalez and senator-judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

The late former senator Defensor-Santiago was one of the 11 senator-judges who voted "no" to opening the second envelope, which prevented the introduction of new evidence against Estrada, her rival in the 1998 presidential elections.

Another Ilonggo lawyer, Iloilo fifth district Rep. Niel “Junjun” Tupas Jr., led the House prosecution team in the 2012 impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

 

-o0o-

 

If the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio reaches the trial in the senate, another Ilonggo lawyer, Iloilo third district Rep. Lorenz Defensor, younger brother of Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr., is expected to sit as one of the 11 prosecutors from the House of Representatives.

Defensor, a senior deputy majority leader, had earlier expressed skepticism one-third of the chamber would endorse Duterte-Carpio’s case “but I can tell you right now that aabot ito sa Committee on Justice (this will make it to the Committee on Justice)," he said.

“We have to accept the fact that many members of the House were dismayed with how the impeachment complaint last year was handled," the solon said, referring to the failed 2025 impeachment complaint against the vice president that had over 215 backers from the House.

Defensor compared referral to the House Committee on Justice as different matter. "It will only be referred to the Committee on Justice, and I can't say anything more," he predicted on February 18, 2026.

Defensor’s statement came hours after Mrs. Duterte-Carpio announced that she would vie for the presidency in the 2028 elections.

 

-o0o-

 

To impeach Vice President Duterte-Carpio, it involves a two-stage constitutional process: initiation by the House of Representatives (impeachment) and trial by the Senate.

It requires grounds such as culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft/corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.

House Committee on Justice voted 53-0 to find probable cause to impeach Mrs. Duterte-Carpio, following weeks of hearings focused on alleged misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and threats against government officials on April 29, 2026.

The unanimous vote by the 53 members present (no objections, no abstentions) merged multiple complaints into a single set of articles for submission to the full House for plenary debate.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

NUJP Iloilo Chapter turns 35

“Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.”

—Walter Cronkite

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE are glad to learn that the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) Iloilo Chapter was revived by a group of talented Iloilo journalists in October 2025.

We congratulate the chapter and the new members now led by Rjay Zuriaga Castor of Daily Guardian and The Manila Times as the chairperson and Tara Katherine Yap of the Manila Bulletin as its vice-chairperson.

NUJP Iloilo Chapter actually turned 35 on May 3, 2026.

It was on May 3, 1991, a World Press Freedom Day, when a group of Iloilo journalists led by Dr. Ma. Diosa Labiste (Philippine News and Features), Nereo Lujan (Panay News), Fems Pedregosa (News Express), Danny Alcoriza (freelance and Department of Labor), and yours truly (News Express) first organized NUJP Iloilo Chapter’s skeletal body at the old Iloilo Mansion House on J.M. Basa-Aldeguer Streets in Iloilo City.

In that meeting, we installed Lujan as interim president. A few weeks later, the chapter expanded and recruited members mostly from the print media and was formalized with the election of its first president, the late former Daily Times associate editor and Daily Guardian columnist Lemuel Celebria at the Residence Hotel in Iloilo City.

 

-o0o-

 

It was a consensus to elect Celebria, who represented the chapter in that year’s NUJP general assembly in Manila, because he was the most senior and active print media practitioner in Iloilo.

Celebria and our long-time colleague Edgar Cadagat of Bacolod, were elected members of the NUJP national board of directors.

It was Dr. Labiste, now the 11th dean of the UP Diliman College of Media and Communication, who initiated the formation of the NUJP Iloilo Chapter through her links with the late chairman Ma. Antonio Nieva, who helped form NUJP’s umbrella organization in 1986, and secretary general Leo Santiago.

Nereo and yours truly, together with Runji Jamolo (Radyo Ng Bayan) and Jaime Cabag (Philippine Information Agency) were fresh fellows in the Graciano Lopez Jaena Community Journalism Workshop sponsored by UP Diliman and UP Los Banos in April 1991, or a month prior to the organization of NUJP Iloilo Chapter.

Weeks after organizing the NUJP local chapter, Dr. Labiste helped facilitate our membership to the International Organization of Journalists (this is different from the International Federation of Journalists) where we received our IOC identification cards and used them when we travelled abroad.

Dr. Hazel Villa, Atty. Teopisto “Pet” Melliza, Daily Guardian founder Limuel Fernandez, Raymund “Raj” Padilla, Gina Hablero, Maricar Calubrian, the late former Sun Star Iloilo editor-in-chief Ivan Suansing, were some of the past members and officers during the chapter’s infant stage.

The late former Iloilo City councilor Joshua Alim, a former Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporter, became our member and legal counsel.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

Effective means of communication

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

—Benjamin Franklin

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

BOTH talking and writing should be the most effective means of communication in a civilized world. Next is our body language.

Thus, we have come to realize it’s not enough that we write, we must also talk or write the way we talk vice versa.

Writing consultant Rudolf Flesch, creator of Flesch-Kincaid readability test, once lamented that 99 percent of the people who come to his writing classes were born non-writers and have stayed that way all their lives.

He observes that for them, writing has always been an unpleasant chore, answering a simple letter loom ahead like a visit to the dentist.

“But they have to do a certain amount of writing in their careers,” Flesch writes in Word Power. “And knowing their writing was poor, they decided to do something about it.”

No doubt when we think about improving our writing, we think of grammar, rhetoric, composition, -- and all those dull things we learned year after year in school.

 

-o0o-

 

“But most likely,” Flesch points out, “these things are not your problem. You probably have a pretty good grip on these essentials. What you need is instruction in the basic principles of professional writing.”

Why professional writing? Because we now write as we did in school, unconsciously trying to please the teacher by following the rules of “English Composition.”

“You’re not really writing a letter to the addressee, or a report for your vice president,” Flesch contends. “The pros-magazine writers, newspapermen, novelists, people who write for a living—learned long ago that they must use “spoken” English and avoid “written” English like the plague.

The Austrian-born author of Why Johnny Can't Read, enumerates the following:

TALK ON PAPER. The secret to more effective writing is simple: talk to your reader. Pretend the person who’ll read your letter or report is sitting across from you, or that you are on the phone with him. Be informal. Relax. Talk in your ordinary voice, your ordinary manner, vocabulary, accent and expression.

You wouldn’t say “Please be advised,” or “We wish to inform you.” Instead, something like this, “You see, it’s like this,” or “Let me explain this.” One helpful trick is to imagine yourself talking to your reader across a table at launch. Punctuate your sentence in your mind, with a bite from a sandwich. Intersperse your thoughts with an occasional “you know,” or the person’s name.

So talk-talk on paper. Go over what you’ve written. Does it look and sound like talk? If not, change it until it does.

-o0o-

 

USE CONTRACTIONS FREELY. There’s nothing more important for improving your writing style. Use of don’t and it’s and haven’t and theirs is the No. 1 style device of modern professional writing. Once you’ve learned this basic trick, you can start producing prose that will be clear, informal and effective.

Take the standard opening phrase: “Enclosed please find.” What’s a better way o saying that? Simply, here’s”!*

LEAVE OUT THE WORD “THAT” WHENEVER POSSIBLE. You can often omit it without changing the meaning at all. Take this sentence: “We suggest that you send us your passbook once a year.” Now strike out that. Isn’t this better and smoother? Again, this is something we do all the time in speaking.

And while you’re crossing out thats, also go on a which hunt. For some reason people think which is a more elegant pronoun. Wrong.

Usually you can replace which by that, or leave it out altogether—and you’ll get a better, more fluent, more “spoken” sentence.

 

-o0o-

 

USE DIRECT QUESTIONS. A conversation is not one-sided. One person speaks, then the other interrupts, often with a question, like “Really?” or “Then what?” A conversation without questions is almost inconceivable. So use a question whenever there’s an opportunity, and your writing will sound more like talk.

You don’t have to go out of your way to do this. Look at what you write and you’ll find indirect questions—beginning with whether all over the place. “Please determine whether payment against these receipts will be in order.” No good. Make it: “Can we pay against these receipts? Please find out and let us know.”

Or take another sentence: “Your questions and comments are invited.” Again, this is really a question: “Do you have any questions or comments? If so, please let us know.” There’s nothing like a direct question to get some feedback.

USE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. A speaker use I, we and you incessantly—they’re part of the give-and-take of conversation. Everybody, it seems, who writes for a company or organization clings desperately to the passive voice and avoids talking the slightest responsibility. He doesn’t say we, never says I, and he even avoids using the straightforward you. So we find phrases like “It is assumed…” “it will be seen…” “it is recommended…” Or sentences like: “An investigation is being made and upon its completion a report will be furnished you.” Instead, write: “We’ve made an investigation and we’ll furnish you a report.”

 

-o0o-

 

Normally, when writing for an organization, there isn’t too much opportunity to say “I.” But do use “I” whenever you express feelings and thoughts that are your own. Often it’s better to say “I’m sorry” or “we’re pleased,” than “we’re sorry” or “we’re pleased.” And call the addressee you. The idea is to make your writing as personal as possible.

IT’S ALL RIGHT TO PUT PREPOSITIONS AT THE END. For 50 years, English-language experts have unanimously insisted that a preposition at the end is fine and dandy. H.W. Fowler, in a Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1926, defends it enthusiastically and cites examples from Shakespeare and the Bible to Thackeray and Kipling. Yet schoolteachers still tell pupils they should never commit such a wicked crime.

Put the preposition at the end whenever it sounds right to do so. Instead of “The claimant is not entitled to the benefits for which he applied,” write “The claimant isn’t entitled to the benefits he applied for.”

Remember, grammatical superstitions are something to get rid of.

SPILL THE BEANS. There’s a natural tendency in all of us to begin at the beginning and go on to the end. When you write a letter, it’s the easiest way to organize your material. The trouble is, it’s hard on the reader. He has a problem, or a question, and wants to know whether the answer is yes or no. If he has to wait until you’re willing to tell him, his impatience and subconscious resentment will increase with every word. Rather than stumbling your way through some awkward introduction, start right in with the most important thing you want to get cross.

USE SHORT WORDS. Long, pompous words are a curse, a curtain that comes between writer and reader. Here are some familiar sayings as they would appear in a business letter. “In the event that initially you fail to succeed, endeavor, endeavor again.” “All is well that terminate well.”

 

-o0o-

 

Everybody has his own pet pomposities. Banish them from your vocabulary. Replace locate with find; prior to with before; sufficient with enough; in the event that with if. After those simple substitutions, weed out such other words as determine, facilitate and require whenever they up. You’ll find that it’s possible to live without them. And you’ll learn to appreciate the joys of simple language.

WRITE FOR PEOPLE. By far the most important thing is to give your letters just the right human touch. Express your natural feelings. If it’s good news, say you’re glad; if it’s bad news, say you’re sorry. Be as courteous, polite and interested as you’d be if the addressee sat in front of you. Some human being will read your letter and, consciously be annoyed if it is cold, pleased if you’re courteous and friendly.

A bank got a letter from a customer who’d moved from New York to Bermuda. He wrote to make new arrangements about his account. The bank’s answer started: “We thank you for your letter advising us of your change of address.” Now really! How stony and unfeeling can you get?  I would at least have said something like “I noted your new address with envy.”

Flesch suggests: “You’ll find there are rewards for improving your written work. This is the age of large organizations where it’s easier to catch the eye of a superior by what you write than by what you say or do.”

He adds: “Write the way I suggest, and your stuff will stand out. Beyond the material rewards are more personal ones. When you write a particularly crisp, elegant paragraph, or a letter that conveys your thoughts clearly and simply, you’ll feel a flow of creative achievement. Treasure it. It is something you’ve earned.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)