Three (3) Masbate City reporters and two (2) municipal information officers are charged with murder over the killing of a certain Virgil Arriesgado on August 12, 2022 in Brgy. Guindawahan, Pio V. Corpus, Masbate.
The RTC 5th Judicial Region, Branch 49, Cataingan, Masbate issued an arrest warrant against the five in July 12.
The complaint was brought to court without preliminary investigation.
In the resolution signed by Provincial Prosecutor Jeremias Mapula on July 2 this year, Ramesis Sison, Jay Legazpi Alfaro and Benjamin Gigante of Masbate Quad Media Society (MQMS), Inc.; LGU-Cawayan Information Officer Fel Monares; and Information Officer Peter Corpus of Pio V. Corpus municipality were tagged as members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Sison was NUJP Masbate chairperson from 2011 – 2013 while Corpus is a freelance reporter who runs the Chronicle News and Public Affairs in Masbate City.
Monares, on the other hand, also serves as station manager of Radyo Kahamugaway DWNZ 106.5 FM.
The charges were filed after the victims’ media group MQMS filed 11 cases of plunder and malversation, among others, against Masbate Governor Antonio Kho, and his men on March 25.
Three other cases of plunder were filed this July against individuals involved in alleged corruption in local projects in Masbate province.
The victims are not members of the NPA. The trumped-up charges against them are meant to harass the media practitioners in the province.
On July 24, three of the five victims filed an urgent motion to recall the warrant of arrest with prayer for preliminary re-investigation.
The following day, July 25, Acting Judge Teofilo Tambago granted the motion, and recalled the warrant. (NUJP | Facebook)
