By The Bohol Chronicle
No subsidy to dyRD - Church
Radio station dyRD is not receiving annual financial subsidy from the Church, according to Bishop Leonardo Medroso yesterday.
He issued the statement after City Mayor Dan Lim, falsely [in his weekly radio program] alleged to the public that dyRD is a recipient of annual subsidy from the Catholic Church.
Lim's statement was flatly denied by the bishop when interviewed over the phone yesterday afternoon.
"DYRD has no financial link with the Church," the bishop [categorically said] declared in rebuking the mayor's false and malicious allegations.
"Ingna siya" (tell him), referring to the mayor, that there is no such subsidy," Medroso said in a tape recorded interview.
DYRD, as a member of the Catholic Media Network ((CMN) like other CMN radio stations availed of a one-time fund assistance to acquire a new transmitter which is part of CMN's program to increase the coverage of their member stations in order to increase its audience reach in spreading the Good News.
"It's just a one-time financial assistance entitled to every CMN-member station which would wish to improve its technical facilities," said Fr. Francis Lucas, CMN president.
The one-time grant was P320,110, a mere 18% of the total technical enhancement project of the station which cost P1.8 million.
The tirade of the mayor against the Bohol Chronicle Radio Corp. continues after teams from independent media groups in Manila and Cebu visited the city a couple of weeks ago to investigate the media harassment happening in the city.
In his statement issued to the probe team, Lim alleged that BCRC resorted to attack city hall governance after the corporation was assessed of its taxes paid to the city government.
Reacting to the mayor's statement, Peter Dejaresco, GM of the twin media enterprise said that documented chronological sequence of events prove that the letter from the late city treasurer Visitacion Acero came two months after Lim received criticisms on the drainage issue, and it was never the other way around.
The drainage issue which was sparked by the flooding along CPG North Avenue and the opening of the drainage outfall fronting the city port happened in November 2008. This generated heavy media coverage including editorial of this paper which criticized the city mayor for his flip-flopping stand on whether to cut the illegally tapped sewerage or not.
Two months later, on Jan 26, 2009, Treasurer Acero wrote BCRC of its alleged tax deficiencies. The media outfit filed formal charges against Acero at the Department of Finance (DOF) Manila which reprimanded the treasurer for her course of action.
Since then, Mayor Lim refused to issue the Mayor's Permit to the media company nor did he issue any computation of alleged tax discrepancies.
Previously, the mayor himself had consistently issued mayor's permits to the Bohol Chronicle from 2004 to 2008, clearly showing the city had no tax-related complaints against the Bohol Chronicle.
When visited by the media probe team, the mayor suddenly issued a statement published in a Cebu daily that the corporation has more than P800,000 tax delinquency which no notice has been issued by the office of the city treasurer.
Two media-freedom groups from Manila and Cebu are currently documenting the raging controversies affecting City Hall and the media in Bohol in general. Funded by the Freedom Fund, the Manila group is documenting with passionate dedication the travails of the press in less than permissive environments - all over the country - the way it is doing on the world-shocking Maguindanao Ampatuan Case.
City Mayor Dan Lim, members of the media and ordinary citizens were randomly interviewed to validate the claims by all parties.
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