Aklan radio reporter faces wiretapping complaint

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

A radio reporter in Kalibo, Aklan is facing a complaint before the Aklan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office for violation of Republic Act No. 4200 otherwise known as the Anti-Wiretapping Act.

Kalibo Sangguniang Bayan member Augusto Tolentino filed his complaint on July 3 against Ma-ann Berdonar Lachica of Energy FM Kalibo radio station.

The councilor claimed that his conversation on September 23, 2014 with radio anchorman Rolly Herrera of IBC DyRG Radyo Budyong Kalibo was private in nature and was recorded by Lachica without his knowledge, in violation of the Anti-Wire Tapping Act. 

Tolentino said the private conversation that took place inside the Kalibo Sangguniang Bayan session hall before the start of a special session is covered by Republic Act No. 4200.

“I find without doubt that Lachica has committed a violation of RA No. 4200 as far as my private conversation or spoken words with Herrera… that she had recorded without my knowledge and authority,” he stressed.

If found guilty of violating the Anti-Wiretapping Act, Lachica faces imprisonment for not less than six months or more than six years. 

Tolentino cited provisions of the law or “An Act to Prohibit and Penalized Wire Tapping and Other Related Violations of Private Communication and Other Purposes” which penalizes individuals who made a secret recording of private communications or conversations by means of the devices without the knowledge and consent of the parties to the conversation.

Section 1 declared that “it shall be unlawful for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable or by using any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape-recorder, or however otherwise described.

Tolentino said the filing of the complaint was instigated by the alleged tape recording of Lachica, who also obtained and used the taped conversation as basis for a complaint against him before the Aklan Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Aklan last October 2014.

Tolentino, who is also a radio brodcaster of RMN DyKR Kalibo,  is facing administrative charges for gross misconduct in office filed by the radio reporter under SP Admin Case No. 2014-05.  

The councilor said, “Lachica executed and submitted a Judicial Affidavit on May 22, 2015 in the Aklan SP case which she testified under oath before the SP on June 5, 2015 that she took the private conversations.”

Further, the radio reporter also presented the compact discs (CDs) and the transcriptions in Aklanon dialect and English during the testimony of the purported voice of Tolentino in the recorded private conversation with Herrera.