A regional trial court (RTC) in Cataingan, Masbate recalled the warrant of arrest issued against three journalists and two municipal information officers charged with murder and alleged to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
RTC 5th Judicial Region, Branch 49, acting Judge Teofilo Tambago issued last Thursday, July 25, the recall of the warrants against Ramesis Sison, Jay Legazpi Alfaro and Benjamin Gigante of Masbate Quad Media Society (MQMS), Inc.; LGU-Cawayan Information Officer Fel Monares; and Information Officer Peter Corpus of Pio V. Corpus municipality.
The charges, signed by Provincial Prosecutor Jeremias Mapula on July 2 this year, allege the five killed a certain Virgil Arriesgado on August 12, 2022 in Brgy. Guindawahan, Pio V. Corpus, Masbate.
The Court subsequently issued the arrest order against the respondents last July 12.
In an alert, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the complaint was brought to court without preliminary investigation.
Sison was NUJP Masbate chairperson from 2011 to 2013 while Corpus is a freelance reporter who runs the Chronicle News and Public Affairs in Masbate City.
Monares also serves as station manager of Radyo Kahamugaway DWNZ 106.5 FM.
The NUJP added the charges against the journalists were filed after their media group MQMS filed 11 cases of plunder and malversation, among others, against Masbate Governor Antonio Kho, and his men last March 25.
MQMS said Kho and others are culpable for “anomalous road projects” worth over P234.6 million that turned out to be “non-existent.”
Three other cases of plunder were filed this July against individuals involved in alleged corruption in local projects in Masbate province.
“The victims (journalists and information officers) are not members of the NPA. The trumped-up charges against them are meant to harass the media practitioners in the province,” the NUJP alert said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
