Julius Babao-Dawud Santos affair

At the end of October 2005, allegations have surfaced that Julius Babao, a major news anchor for ABS-CBN, a Philippine media conglomerate, had paid or at least guaranteed the bail of a suspected terrorist, Tyrone del Rosario Santos, alias Dawud Santos in pursuit of an exclusive news story. This affair brought into light questions over the role of media in Philippine society, as well the use (and misuse) of intelligence in serving national security and political interests.

Background

The controversy started in October 26, 2005, when Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had lunch with Ramon Tulfo, a columnist for the "Philippine Daily Inquirer", a leading Philippine daily. During that lunch, Arroyo revealed to Tulfo the details of an intelligence report by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) alleging that a certain media man, who Arroyo identified as Julius Babao, paid and guaranteed the PHP 200,000 (about US$ 3,600) bail of Dawud Santos, a suspected terrorist; he alleged to be the second-in-command of the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), a group of radical Filipino converts to Islam with alleged ties to Jemaah Islamiyah and Al-Qaeda. [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4933472/]

Dawud Santos was arrested on March 22 that same year from an alleged RSM safe house in Cubao, Quezon City for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued in May 2002. His arrest was part of a police sweep in the wake of the bombing of a bus on February 14 in Makati City as well as a riot in Camp Bagong Diwa on March 15. In turn, his arrest led to a raid in another alleged safe house in Fairview, Quezon City where 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate and bomb canisters were supposedly confiscated.

As the charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives was a bailable offence, bail was granted to Santos by Judge Afable Cajigal and given his release on April 22. The report then alleged that it was Babao himself who left with Santos in an ABS-CBN van.

In a separate press briefing on October 27, Rear Adm. Tirso Danga, the deputy chief of staff for intelligence (J-2) likewise repeated the same allegations although at that time he only identified Babao as the one who posted bail for Santos; later in another briefing on October 31, he further stated that Santos himself has "dropped off the screen" despite efforts to maintain surveillance on him by the military.

At the time when these allegations were made, Babao himself was on vacation in Hong Kong with his family; when asked to comment he vehemently denied the charges leveled against him. However, for the sake of propriety he went on a voluntary leave of absence on November 1 while this matter was investigated by ABS-CBN.

The investigation

On October 30 an ethics investigation team was put together by ABS-CBN to look into the allegations made by the ISAFP and the President. It was mandated to piece together the events from March 22 to April 26, 2005 through interviews and documented evidence to prove or disprove the charge against Babao, as well as determining whether he violated journalistic ethics in getting the Dawud Santos exclusive.