ILOILO CITY -- A key witness in the 2004 killing of Aklan broadcaster Herson “Boy” Hinolan was arrested on Saturday in Aklan’s capital town of Kalibo for defying a subpoena, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Peter Melgar was brought to Cebu City on Sunday and was turned over to its jail on Monday.

The Cebu regional trial court Branch 16 had issued a warrant of arrest against Melgar after he repeatedly ignored subpoenas.

Melgar was the first to identify former Mayor Alfredo “Fred” Arcenio of Lezo town in Aklan as Hinolan’s lone assailant.
Hinolan, former station manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo, was repeatedly shot on Nov. 13, 2004, near a carnival in Kalibo and died two days later.

Arcenio has denied involvement in the killing and claimed he was then in Lezo, seven kilometers away.

But Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga denied Arcenio’s motion for bail last year, saying the evidence of guilt was strong.

Melgar was under the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program for around four years but later left his safe house.

On Feb. 12, 2008, he executed an affidavit of recantation stating that he had mistakenly identified the mayor because it was dark.

He said he was recanting because his conscience “bothered” him.

The case was among those being prosecuted by the DOJ’s Task Force 211, which was created to investigate the continued killings of journalists.

Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, task force chair, said the arrest of Melgar would help ensure that government witnesses would not retract their statements.

“TF211 will not take it lightly for witnesses to execute sworn statements and later on recant in return for certain considerations,” said Blancaflor in a statement.