Paican, Liddawa forgive each other, agree to end controversy

After more than two months since the controversy and furor over the fistfight in a Mandaue City street between a television reporter and a police official, the two protagonists have decided, during the preliminary hearing of the case at the Police Regional Office, to patch things up and forgive each other.

The reporter, Ramil Paican, said, “Lisod man gud kaayo nga magmintinar ta og kasuko, so wagtangon nalang ni nato,” and police official, Sr. Insp. Jose Liddawa, responded by agreeing to forget what happened between them while wishing the reporter to get a job sooner.

Weeks after that much publicized incident, Paican has been terminated by his employer, ABS-CBN television network, for violating the company’s code of ethics, while Liddawa has been suspended by the PNP in the course of an investigation for the filing of administrative raps against him at the PRO-7.

The Paican-Liddawa fistfight took place last September after the policeman’s car crashed into the news crew vehicle.

Paican carried the report through TV Patrol Cebu showing Liddawa, apparently drunken, throwing punches at the news crewmen.

Liddawa later filed a complaint to the ABS-CBN management alleging that it was the news crew and Paican who beat him up. The unaired footage later showed that the news crew took turns in hitting back at Liddawa, punching the policeman, who eventually fell on the road. 

Paican admitted punching Liddawa but insisted that he did it only after the policeman struck TV cameraman Joel Noel at least thrice and kept on taunting Noel to a fistfight.

Paican said he got scared when he saw the angry faces of policemen who arrived at the scene and he further feared for his security when he learned of Liddawa’s identity so he decided to withhold a portion of the footage showing the newsmen fell Liddawa to the ground.

The network however said that Paican, Noel and the driver violated the company’s ethical standards for excluding that important part of the news footage that the network aired on September 18. The aired footage showed Liddawas the culprit who attacked Paican and his crew.

Last October 2, the ABS-CBN management announced its decision to terminate Paican and his two crewmen for dishonesty.

Paican, for his part, apologized to Liddawa, to the public, to his former colleagues in the network, and to the Cebu media. — Garry B. Lao/RAE