Olongapo court dismisses raps vs teacher who tweeted offering bounty for Duterte

June 25, 2020

The Olongapo City Regional Trial Court dismissed sedition charges against teacher Ronnel Mas who tweeted a P50 million bounty to anyone who could kill President Rodrigo Duterte.

In its decision on Wednesday, the court said Mas was “unlawfully” arrested by operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Olongapo City RTC Branch 72 Presiding Judge Richard Paradeza said because of the unlawful arrest of the accused, the court “failed to acquire jurisdiction” over him.

“Considering that the accused Mas had timely raised objection to the legality of his arrest before arraignment, and with the findings of this court that accused Mas was indeed unlawfully arrested, this court failed to acquire jurisdiction over his person,”  Paradeza stressed.

“With the quashal of the criminal information for violation of Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to R.A. 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2020), this case is now considered dismissed,” the judge added.

Mas was to be arraigned last May 28 before the Olongapo court, but it was deferred after he filed a motion to quash.

The court noted that the  tweet of Mas was posted on May 5, but his arrest took place only after six days solely  on the basis of the sworn statement made by a certain Julius Hallado.

Paradeza said the NBI did not exert effort to gather evidence to find the real ownership of the account, but merely rely on the statements of Hallado. DMS