Iligan mayor shuts down radio station for 'unpaid tax'
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Mayor Regencia in old file photo
from an agency.
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Iligan City, Philippines
April 28, 2017
An FM radio station here was padlocked last week, not for its stance against the city administration, but for its alleged failure to pay PHP42,125.74 in back taxes since 2014, a city official said Wednesday.
The padlocked radio station is a known critic of the administration Mayor Celso Regencia.
Jose Pantoja, the city information officer, told the media that FM station DXLS, popularly known as “Love Radio,” was padlocked last week for alleged tax delinquency.
He said the alleged failure of the radio station to pay its taxes means that the radio station was operating without a business permit.
“Contrary to the allegation, the radio station was not closed because of its being critical to the administration of Mayor Regencia,” Pantoja said.
Media quoted a radio commentator, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, as saying that the closure of the station could be due to its critical stance against the city executive.
The source said that several commentators of the radio station have been criticizing the release of Regencia from prison early this year.
Reports also revealed there were suspicions the Love Radio commentators were “financed” by Regencia’s political adversaries.
The Regional Trial Court Branch 77 in Quezon City has cleared Regencia of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder in connection with the ambush of former Iligan City Congressman Vicente “Varf” Belmonte in 2014. The decision was penned last January 30.
Regencia is serving his second term as Iligan mayor. The first few months of his first term were spent in the city jail in Barangay Tipanoy because of the case.
Love Radio is owned by the Manila Broadcasting Company. It started operation in Iligan City on February 13, 1995.
As of press time, Love Radio management has not issued an official statement about the closure order. TNRS
