KBP to regulate dating by radio

Cebu - The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas immediately called for a meeting with its members to discuss “precautionary measures” with regards to interactive formats of radio stations.

This following the discovery of the body of a factory worker, who was believed to have been raped and killed by her “textmate,” whom she met through a program over a local FM radio station.

KBP-Cebu president Carlo Dugaduga, in a phone interview yesterday, said during their meeting today, he will recommend to the organization that radio stations practicing such programs should encourage their callers/participants to meet up for the first time at the stations for monitoring purposes.

It is not that callers are monitored for their criminal tendencies, but it is just part of the “precautionary measures” advisable for two strangers who meet up for the first time, he added.

The anchor or program host should also be there for him to get to know the faces of the callers, Dugaduga explained.

Dugaduga, however, said that what happened to Emelyn Nuñeza was the first recorded case that marred the so-called “dating” radio programs.

But because of the incident, he said he will propose that the station must keep a list of the names and addresses of all its callers, and that to make sure that they are not using fake numbers, the technicians should be advised to call them to verify their numbers.

He explained this will give the station a record of all its callers/participants of its program to enable it to easily trace the subject callers in cases like what happened to Nuneza.

Dugaduga believes that Nuneza’s killer was taking advantage of the woman’s apparent trust to him.

“Maayo ta og masubay og mayo sa mga otoridad…basin nabiktima sa holdup. Pero ang suspicion mao gyud,”said Dugaduga, in reference to how the victim met her killer.

The decomposing body of Nuñeza, 24, single, a native of barangay Tumugpa, Tuburan town who worked as a factory worker in one of the companies at the Mactan Export Processing Zone 2 in Lapu-Lapu City was found on Ouano Avenue at the Reclamation Area last Wednesday.

Homicide chief Jorge Aniñon said they were immediately able to identify the woman because her friends rushed to the area as they have been looking for her since she went missing last January 23.

Joey Manacio, a security guard of one of the establishments in the reclamation area was the one who discovered Nuñeza’s body at the back of the gasoline station when he went there supposedly to remove his bowel at around 4 p.m.

Mancio said he smelled a very foul odor and was surprised when he saw a human knee from among the bushes where the body of a woman was hidden. He also found a pair of pants about three meters away from the dead body.

When he checked, the security guard added that he found out that the victim’s body is already in the state of decomposition and her underwear is already below her knee while her shirt was already rolled up.

Aniñon said that based on the accounts of her co-worker and board mate, Nuñeza, who rents a boarding house in barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City, was last seen together with a certain “Michael,” whom she got acquainted with through a program over a local FM radio station.

The informant added that the victim and the man first agreed through text message for an “eyeball” or to meet personally last January 21 outside her workplace at MEPZ 2.

The suspect then allegedly brought Nuñeza to the Mactan Shrine where they stayed for two hours. After a while, he told her that he will leave to buy food and asked her that they exchange cell phone units to make sure that he will return.

However, Michael failed to come back and tired of waiting, the victim decided to go home to her boarding house where she told her board mate (the informant) about her “date.”

The following day, Nuñeza allegedly tried to borrow the cell phone of the informant and called the suspect who asked her that they meet again at Caltex Starmart at the North Reclamation Area at 6 p.m. on January 23.

During their conversation, the suspect reportedly asked her not to accompany anybody and warned her not to report anything to the police.

But since the victim really wanted to have her cell phone back, she asked her board mate that they go the place where she and the suspect will meet. But when they were already near the meeting place, Nuñeza asked her to disembark to make it appear that nobody is with her.

The informant said she then phoned her boyfriend to fetch her and both of them still even saw the victim standing in front of the center island while answering the phone before she crossed the street going to Starmart where she was met by the suspect.

She added that after Nuñeza and Michael met, they suddenly went out of sight prompting her and her boyfriend to search in the vast reclamation area but failed to locate the victim because it was already dark.

Aniñon said that it took five days for Nuñeza’s friends and co-workers to look for her before her dead body was discovered.

Police investigators believed the victim was raped before she was killed, which they are now trying to verify through an autopsy.

Aniñon said they will also coordinate with the local radio station for the possible identification of the suspect. 

Meanwhile, vice governor Gregorio Sanchez has requested the Mandaue City Police for a speedy investigation into the killing.

He said information dissemination is needed in order to warn women against seeing someone you just know over the phone.  

Jemelito D. Concha, barangay captain of Tomugpa, Tuburan and brother-in-law of the victim, went yesterday to the office of Sanchez to ask for assistance.

With this, Sanchez presented to be guarantor of the family at the St. Francis Funeral Homes for the release of the victim’s body to be brought back to Tuburan. — With reports from Johanna Natavio/WAB (THE FREEMAN)