School teacher cleared over ‘kill-duterte’ sedition case

MANILA: A senior government prosecutor in Zambales province in Central Luzon junked anew the criminal case of inciting to rebellion filed against a public schoolteacher for offering on social media a $1 million bounty for the killing of President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte in 2020.

In his decision, lawyer Jose Theodoro Leonardo Santos, the Zambales chief prosecutor, cited “lack of probable cause” in dismissing the complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Ronnel Mas, 25.

More specifically, Santos ruled that the NBI failed to secure a witness or evidence to prove that Mas posted the tweet offering the $1 million in the “kill-duterte” reward. As such, he said, the NBI did not succeed in “authenticating” or “verifying” that the tweet was posted by Mas.

Actually, however, it was the second time that the NBI filed an inciting to sedition case against Mas in connnection with the country’s cybercrime law. The first was the criminal complaint it filed against Mas before the Olongapo City regional court in Zambales following his arrest in May 2020.

Court records showed that NBI agents arrested Mas, 25, in the town of Santa Cruz, Zambales on May 11, 2020 for allegedly offering the $1 million bountry for anybody who would kill Duterte.

The NBI told media following his arrest that Mas had admited sending the tweet, claiming it was a “joke” and that he was apologizing to Duterte.

But the court dismissed the case against Mas, which apparently caught the NBI agents by surprise which, legal experts said, dwelt on basic human rights of people.

In its decision, the court pointed out that the NBI commited several violations of the law that led to the acquital of Mas. The court noted, for instance, that the extra-judicial confession made to the NBI was “inadmissible” because there was no defense lawyer to advice Mas during his interrogation.

For another, the NBI also failed to comply with the rules of electronic evidence as mandated by the country’s cybercrime law in the investigation and gathering of data, according to the court.