MANILA, Philippines -- The lawyer of Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon on Wednesday accused the Philippine National Police (PNP) of making reporter Dana Batnag a scapegoat for security forces' failure to secure the Manila Peninsula hotel at the height of the November 29 standoff.

"They are putting the blame on someone else to negate their liability that with 1,500 Marines and 500 cops at [the] Manila Pen, one woman succeeded in helping Faeldon escape, as they claimed...They are trying to excuse themselves from the culpability, assuming that he did escape," lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in a phone interview.

Angeles described the PNP's spin that a lady reporter helped Faeldon escape as "showbiz" news considering the "sordid details" and insinuations about the two.

"Two single people were seen talking to each other. So what? They [authorities] should abandon that tactic and leave it to the pros. It is distracting us from the main issue which is press freedom," Angeles said.

Angeles warned that by implicating Batnag, the police was resorting to another scare tactic against the media.

Police sources told the Inquirer that Batnag, a reporter of the Tokyo-based Jiji Press, gave Faeldon a press ID that allowed him to sneak out of the posh Makati Hotel during the standoff led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Army Brigadier General Danilo Lim and member of the Magdalo group.

Angeles recalled that the PNP handcuffed the reporters and TV news crew and "processed" them purportedly because one of them helped Faeldon escape even if, she said, neither the PNP nor the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) at that time had an idea that the Magdalo officer was not at the hotel anymore.

"The insinuation is the media are co-conspirators. The handcuffing of the press is merely a euphemism for jail," Angeles said.

Angeles added that the public should not be distracted from the main issue that the group of Trillanes and Lim "staged a protest against the continuing oppression of the present administration."

Amid all this, she said, the government has been trying to scare the media, which has simply been acting in the public interest.

The government has offered a P1-million reward for information that would lead to the capture of Faeldon, who had already escaped from detention once in 2006.

He was re-arrested with a female military lawyer in Malabon City after a manhunt.

Police Director General Avelino Razon, Jr. said last week that authorities were looking into the possibility that a lady reporter helped Faeldon escape.

Razon, however, would not reveal the reporter's identity, ostensibly so as not to jeopardize ongoing operations to find Faeldon.