Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested two radio station executives for allegedly extorting PHP 5 million ($92,400) from a pastor-businessman.

The suspects are Jonathan Macailing alias “Jan-Jan”, manager, and Salvador Galano alias “Boy”, news director of dxES-AM Bombo Radyo station in General Santos City.

They were nabbed through an entrapment operation following a complaint from Joel Apolinario, the founder of the Kappa Community Ministry International, Inc.

The Kappa is an acronym for Kabus Padatoon, which translates to “Enrich the Poor” in Cebuano dialect is engaged in a money market scheme a that had been declared unauthorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Macailing and Galano had been attacking the Kappa ministry in their commentaries, insinuating that it is an illegal money pyramid scheme.

According to sources, the suspects had earlier extorted a PHP 400,000 ($7400) from Apolinario and made another demand that reportedly reached PHP10 million but settled for PHP 5 million, to stop such reports.

A piece on media corruption in the Philippines published by the Ethical Journalism Network notes: “The conflict of interest is obvious: a journalist who takes bribes is reporting for his personal gain. A reporter then can slant the story to favour a subject who has paid or promised payment and shares the reward with other editors.”