Police to release columnist Margarita Valle

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is set to release Davao City-based columnist Margarita Valle, who was arrested on Sunday morning at Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental.

The police said it was a case of mistaken identity, which they discovered after Valle was brought to an office of the CIDG-Zamboanga Peninsula for further verification.

"Upon arrival of the witness who physically identified the subject, witness further averred that the suspect has major resemblance but is not the actual suspect who is the subject of the warrant," PNP spokesperson Colonel Bernard Banac said in a statement.

He said that Valle will be released after the medical exam and documentation.

In an earlier police report, the police said that the 60-year-old columnist was arrested by virtue of standing warrants for multiple murder with quadruple frustrated murder and damage to government property issued by a Misamis Occidental regional trial court in December 2011.

Another arrest warrant for arson, released by a court in Pagadian City in September 2006 and bailable for P24,000, was also served against her.

Valle was at the airport for her flight home after supposedly attending a writing workshop in Cagayan de Oro when the arrest happened. — Dona Magsino/BM, GMA News