The Daily Manila Shimbun

 

DILG hits two groups in issue on college editor

April 8, 2020



The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Wednesday slammed the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and Karapatan human rights group for blaming the government over the cyber libel case filed against the editor of a campus publication.

According to Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, DILG spokesperson, Joshua Molo, editor-in-chief of the University of the East Dawn, is entitled to free speech but what is “unacceptable” and “downright foul” is for the two militant groups to blame the government when Molo’s high school teachers filed a case against him for criticizing the government.

Malaya said the government is not involved in the issue, adding it is entirely a “private matter”.

“The DILG supports the right of Filipinos to free expression, that’s a fundamental human right that is protected by the Constitution. But we cannot understand why CEGP and Karapatan are again accusing the national government of allegedly suppressing the rights of Molo. The government was never involved here. It was Molo’s high school teachers who allegedly pressured him and not the government,” he said.

“It was Molo’s high school teacher who complained and the government has nothing to do with it,” he said.

Malaya said what the organizations did was to spread fake news.

“This is clearly another way of misinformation to malign and blame everything on the government where we should instead be working together to fight the common enemy, the coronavirus,” said Malaya.

“It obviously showed that they are just joining on the issue as they are wont to do in order to pounce on every opportunity to discredit the government,” he added.

Based on reports, Molo was allegedly compelled to issue a public apology following a complaint filed by his former high school teachers concerning heated exchanges on a social media platform.

The teacher allegedly threatened to file a cyber libel case against the student.

DILG said the story of the UE editor came out in the media and the CEGP and Karapatan, in a statement, urged the government to focus on COVID-19 concerns “instead of filing nonsensical criminal charges.”

Malaya said the government has no intention to file cases because it respects the rights of Molo to express his opinion for or against the government.

“The national government is hell-bent in to containing this virus, that’s what we are doing and I suggest to the CEGP and Karapatan to instead help the government. Maybe you have (a) brilliant idea, let us hear it. Instead, you always attack the government. Maybe this time you might want to help,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS