Libel rap vs STAR man dismissed

TARLAC CITY — The office of the city prosecutor here has dismissed "for lack of probable cause" the libel charge filed by four agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against two city officials here, a former reporter for a weekly tabloid in the province, and this writer.

The complaint stemmed from two news articles written by the two journalists regarding a speech of Councilor Abelardo Ladera condemning the NBI in the province for the wrongful arrest it made on City Health Officer Jerome Lapeña sometime during the middle of last year.

Lapeña was arrested for a 10-year-old case of kidnapping with estafa. It was however, later found that the charges against Lapeña were already dismissed. — Benjie Villa