TACLOBAN CITY — Media practitioners in Eastern Visayas are up in arms to protest the arrest of an Ormoc-based journalist due to her failure to attend court hearings as a witness of a drug buy-bust operation of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Josie Serseña, a radio broadcaster and reporter of weekly newspaper Eastern Visayas Mail, was arrested early morning last Friday, 5 July, at her house in Brgy. Kagao-han, Ormoc City. She was released early evening of the same day after her publisher posted her bail.

Her arrest was based on a bench warrant issued by Judge Mario Quinit, the presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 12 in Ormoc City, who is handling a drug case that Serseña should has testified. The court issued bench warrant in response to the motion filed by prosecutor Erwin Fabriga.

Serseña said she was requested by the PDEA to be its witness of a buy-bust in Brgy. Sto. Rosario, Matag-ob town sometime in April 2022. It is a practice of PDEA and Philippine National Police to bring a media practitioner to act as witness in their anti-drug operation, a practice that media organizations have long been protesting.

Serseña said she did not receive a court summon to appear in its hearing last 27 June 2024 and neither the PDEA lawyer informed her about it. She added that court personnel later informed her that the summon was sent out last 13 June.

She said the person who was supposed to deliver the summon allegedly failed to find her residence. “It’s odd how they cannot locate our house to issue to summon but could easily find me when they have to arrest,” she told DAILY TRIBUNE.

On Sunday, the Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders, a regional group of media practitioners and workers, issued a statement condemning the arrest of Serseña.

“The Serseña episode (arrest and detention) is a classic case of unfair implementation of the anti-illegal drugs law, where it is the witness that is being punished, technically veering the focus of the case away from the suspects who are supposed to be the ones under trial,” EVMWB stated.

“Serseña, being not the primary witness to the case at hand, should not have been held accountable to the circumstances that may have direly affect the authorities’ handling of the case in court because her testimony, whatever it may be, would not be vital to the outcome of the case, as it would only zero on her confirmation of the seized drugs being inventoried after the police drug operations,” it added.

“A media representative, along with DOJ representative, and an elected public official are only called by the authorities to witness the conduct of an inventory of the contraband seized during the anti-illegal drug operations. Nothing more, thus whatever testimony they may state in court would only be a confirmation of what they witnessed during the conduct of the inventory, thus it will have nothing substantial or relevance to determine the guilt or innocence of the suspects,” the group said.