E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Playing with reputations
Sunday, 06 04, 2006
Ambassador Ernie Maceda wrote in his column last Friday about the frightening experience of a lawyer friend of his, who was arrested by persons who did not properly identify themselves but later turned out to be policemen. The charge against the lawyer: Rape; the alleged victim: A former housemaid.
For once, the famous Mr. Exposé’s reportage of the incident veered from his trademark undaunted style of calling a spade a spade. This time, he did not identify the dramatis personae. This is commendable, since one’s reputation is much too precious to be played around with. After all, crying “rape” is too easy to concoct, such that a serious accusation like that should remain a charge until it is proven in court and conviction of the accused is obtained. Until then, the accused does not deserve the ignoble and depraved label of rapist, and the constitutional presumption of his innocence should hold.
What made the experience more frightening was the roughshod treatment by a giant television network of the whole incident. I saw the footage in the morning news on Wednesday. The video of the arrest was replayed in the early evening news, and then again in the late evening. In all three extended instances of airing, the lawyer was identified by name, his high and responsible position repeatedly mentioned, and his full face frozen on the TV monitor for all the world to view. The whole day of Wednesday, there were teasers on TV every other hour about the arrest. Simultaneously, the radio station of the same network had the entire day repeatedly gloating over the whole sordid arrest. In this feeding frenzy, the media sharks really made doubly sure that there would be no mistaking who the alleged rapist was.
Did the TV network have to do that, when it was customary in other instances of reported complaints of rape that the alleged rapist is not identified by name, and footages of his face are purposely pixelized, or blurred through digital technology, to protect his name and person?
Worse, what was conveniently omitted in the news was that the complainant, as early as noon of Wednesday, had already voluntarily desisted from pursuing her charge against the lawyer, after she admitted having concocted the story to get back at the lawyer who had threatened her with estafa prompting her to leave his employ two days before the alleged rape.
From all indications, the lawyer had been set up. Why would the media — the cameraman and reporter, most especially — be conveniently around late Tuesday night at the condominium where the lawyer was arrested, at the precise time the handcuffs were placed on him and when he was dragged down the stairs into a waiting van that would bring him to the police station? Go figure.
And why was the lawyer given this full-blown shoddy media exposure? Given the complete innocence of the lawyer, one plausible guess is that he is much too identified with the opposition. In these days of arrests and seizures, it is not an improbability that any one wishing to curry favor with the government will go to that extent of employing any artifice to discredit personalities in the opposition, anything to distract attention.
There ought to be a law against this kind of frightening reportage. I happen to know the lawyer, and I grieve and mad as hell that his reputation has been irreparably damaged by the mishandling of the entire incident.
The aggrieved lawyer, Attorney Lorenzo “Rey” E. Leynes Jr. of Batangas, is a respected figure in legal circles. He has been my collaborating counsel in many politically-charged cases. An alumnus of the Ateneo College of Law, Rey has been a long-time friend and fraternity brod of Manong Ernie: Rey was secretary of the Senate when the latter was the Senate president; he was a partner in the law office that Manong Ernie put up in New York when he went there on exile during the Marcos years; and Rey has been the legal counsel and campaign manager of Manong Ernie in many political battles.
Rey, as Senate secretary for many years, was well-loved by the staff. Everybody knew him to be a straight and approachable guy, always ready to extend a helping hand, given his access to power and the resources he had by virtue of his position. I know him to be a very devoted family man. A deeply religious person, he was instrumental in the installation of the life-size statue of the Virgin Mary, which until today adorns the multi-purpose hall of the Senate. He was a regular lector at the daily Mass at the Senate.
I was a witness to the anguish of Rey when he was brought for inquest before the City Prosecutor of Manila last Wednesday. His tears were from somebody who is completely innocent. On that day itself, it did not take long for the City Prosecutor to throw out the charge.
So what do we learn from this? I go along with what Manong Ernie said in his column: Be careful in hiring maids from employment agencies whose backgrounds you are not familiar with. Here’s another: If you are with the opposition, beware of what agents of the State can do to damage your reputation. You might end up as another Sig Tabayoyong, Loren Legarda’s principal witness on fraud in the last elections, who was tagged as a terrorist working in connivance with the Abu Sayyaf.
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