Finance mess seen in fire at Church radio station

CITY OF CALAPAN—Police are closing in on “internal management problem” as a motive for the burning of a Church-run radio station and its finance office in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, late last month.

Chief Insp. Edwin Fiel Gutang, San Jose chief of police, said investigation yielded pieces of information and evidence pointing to a financial mess in the radio station.

Gutang said the two cases of arson were related to a “change of management” in the radio station.

The building housing the AM and FM radio stations of dzVT, in Poblacion, San Jose, was razed to the ground on Oct. 26 by still unidentified men. On the same day, the station’s finance office, located at the Chancery building inside the St. Joseph Seminary compound on Mabini Street Extension, was also set on fire and suffered damages.

The radio station was owned and managed by the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose de Occidental Mindoro, which also owned the St. Joseph Seminary.

Bishop Antonio P. Palang, SVD, of the Vicariate of San Jose, had condemned the arson but declined to speculate on who could be the suspects.

“We will name names upon completion of the investigation,” he said.

The Inquirer tried to reach the current station manager, Lito Villador, but he has not been answering calls. Villador has kept mum since the arson.

Gutang said the arson was related to internal financial matters at the radio station. He said the police angle was bolstered by a finding that there was a first unsuccessful attempt to burn the finance office on Oct. 21.

The second arson on Oct. 26 damaged portions of the finance office but financial records have been spared from the fire. “All unburned records were transferred to the administrative and finance office of the seminary,” Gutang said.

Initial investigation conducted by Bureau of Fire Protection, the Provincial Scene of the Crime Operatives and San Jose Municipal Police Station concluded that the fire was the work of arsonists.

Investigators found a container with gasoline in the burned radio station. Madonna T. Virola, Inquirer Southern Luzon