The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DOJ) said that the arrest of teacher Ronnel Mas by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) would have been invalid had he only not admitted to the charges filed against him, CNN Philippines reported.
In an order signed by Assistant State Prosecutor Jeannette Dacpano and approved by Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento, Mas’ arrest was invalid but was “untimely cured” by his own admission to the media about the post.
The prosecutors also said that inciting to sedition is a crime that needs a warrant for an arrest to be made. The arrest would have been invalid since the police officers did not have conclusive evidence that he was behind the post. However, this was “cured” when he admitted to the charges.
“Inciting to sedition is not a continuous crime for which the offender may be arrested without a warrant duly issued by the proper authority. The defect of Mas’s warrantless arrest was ultimately cured when Mas extra-judicially admitted to the media that he indeed personally posted the provocative text on his own Twitter account,” CNN quoted the order as saying.
Mas on May 5 tweeted that he will offer PHP50 million reward for anyone who would kill President Rodrigo Duterte.
“I will give 50 million reward kung sino makakapatay kay Duterte. #NotoABSCBNShutDown,” he said in the post.
