Teacher to be charged for inciting to sedition by offering P50m bounty to kill Duterte

May 14, 2020

Government prosecutors  found sufficient basis to prosecute a 25-year-old public school teacher for inciting to sedition for allegedly offering in his social media account a P50 million reward to anyone who would kill President Rodrigo Duterte.

National Prosecution Service Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento said on Thursday inciting to sedition in relation to Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 will be filed against Rommel Mas in court.

Malcontento said the case would be filed before a court in “Zambales but the actual filing would be done next week.”

Mas would remain in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the DOJ official stressed.

Mas, a teacher from Santa Cruz, Zambales was arrested by the NBI-Dagupan District Office last Monday, May 11, after he allegedly posted on Twitter via the account “@RonPrince” the message, “I will give 50 Million reward kung sino makakapatay kay Duterte #NotoABSCBNShutDown”.

After reportedly getting threats, Mas  deleted his post. But  screenshots of his post circulated on Facebook and Twitter.

Mas apologized, but Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said “apology is not one of the grounds for extinguishing criminal liability.”

“I cannot feloniously injure another and get away with it by merely saying 'sorry',” Guevarra said. DMS