LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — Despite causing tremendous trouble to government authorities, Quezon broadcaster Melinda Jennifer Glifonea (not Glefonea as earlier reported) is not being treated as a suspect in a staged kidnapping but is considered as a media person in distress, according to a police official.
“Jenny is not a suspect,” Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos, Quezon police chief, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday.
Carlos said government authorities wanted Glifonea to surface from her hiding after she admitted that she planned and orchestrated her abduction to preempt those who have been threatening her life and to compel authorities to “provide appropriate security for her.”
The search for Glifonea and two men involved in the staged kidnapping continues, according to Carlos.
“Our priority is Jenny’s safety,” he added.
On early Sunday morning, Glifonea’s supposed abduction in a restaurant in Candelaria town was reported to the police.
The “kidnapping” incident was captured by the restaurant’s closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras as two armed men who covered their faces with handkerchiefs dragged the radio program host to a waiting Innova van.
Police and military who joined forces to rescue Glifonea were able to locate the get-away van and the driver who was found armed with a loaded .45 pistol later in the afternoon, also in Candelaria.
After the arrest of the driver, Glifonea contacted the police chief of Candelaria and confessed that the whole abduction was scripted and that she planned it to preempt those who have been threatening her for her scathing radio commentaries.
The radio reporter and news anchor said she would only surface if the government gave her protection.
In a police report dated May 13, a woman named Carmela Rosales appeared at the Candelaria police station and claimed that the get-away vehicle was owned by her husband, Philippine Navy Commodore Romeo Rosales Jr.
Rosales, manager of a restaurant owned by Candelaria mayoralty candidate Fernando “Boy Bata” Alimagno, said Glifonea borrowed the van from her on Saturday afternoon.
Rosales described Glifonea as a friend and regular restaurant customer.
A police source said Glifonea appeared to be protecting the real brains behind the fake kidnapping.
“She (Glifonea) was not the brains or the beneficiary of the scripted abduction. She was just used by the real brains for political purposes,” said the informant who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.
Ronilo Dagos, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Quezon chapter, also called on Glifonea to surface and face the consequences of her action.
Dagos appealed to mediamen not to resort to gimmickry to solicit the attention of the authorities.
“The NUJP is always ready to extend assistance to all media men in distress and even in life and death situation. But please, kidnap-me plan was not the right way to get the attention,” he said over the phone.
Glifonea is not a member of NUJP-Quezon, according to Dagos.