Managing editor of Manila Times quits over ‘matrix’ story

April 25, 2019

The managing editor of The Manila Times resigned Wednesday after the newspaper published a matrix of an alleged plot involving journalists to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

Felipe Salvosa II tendered his resignation two days after the newspaper's chairman emeritus Dante Ang wrote and published a story on the alleged media-backed plan to oust Duterte.

"I didn't agree with the publication of the 'matrix' story. After that, I felt it was time to go," Salvosa told The Daily Manila Shimbun on Thursday.

Salvosa, a professor and coordinator of the journalism program in the University of Santo Tomas (UST), slammed the story in a social media post the day it was published.

"A diagram is by no means an evidence of 'destabilization' or an 'ouster plot.' It is a very huge stretch for anyone to accuse PCIJ (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism), Vera Files and Rappler of actively plotting to unseat the President. I know people there and they are not coup plotters," he wrote in his Twitter account last Monday.

According to The Manila Times, the diagram was provided to them by an (unidentified) source. It linked people from Rappler, Vera Files, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and National Union of People's Lawyers to an alias "Bikoy" and "Ellen Tordesillas."

Salvosa said he will continue to teach in UST. He explained one of the reasons why he decided to quit was also because of his role as a journalism professor.

"I think practice is one important aspect of teaching. We always tell students. It's not news if it's not true. I felt I needed to uphold that principle now more than ever," he told The Daily Manila Shimbun. Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS