A progressive group urged the government to free and drop all charges against the teacher who offered a P50-M to anyone who can end President Rodrigo Duterte’s life.
On a statement, Raymond Basilio, the secretary-general of the progressive group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) denounced the action of law enforcers against Ronnel Mas, the 25-year old educator living in Zambales.
According to Basilio, a teacher like Mas doesn’t have the capacity to provide P50-M so they should just downplay the tweet of the latter.
“Teachers’ dire economic state is no secret to the people, especially to the government. 25-year old Teacher Ronnel obviously does not have 50 million to pay as bounty hence his post clearly does not pose any serious threat to the President. Why then did the NBI spend valuable time and resources to apprehend this teacher?” raised ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio.
Basilio pointed out that Mas became one of the ‘outstanding secondary teachers’ in Zambales.
ACT also criticized the government for using the law as a weapon against its critics like Mas.
“We call on fellow defenders of democracy to resist all attempts to trample on our rights and freedoms. Free Teacher Ronnel!” he said.
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdie Gaite expressed support to Mas, calling the tweet of the teacher as hyperbole that should be disregarded by the authorities.
“What happened to Teacher Ronnel was selective persecution targeting dissenters. NBI knows that his tweet was just hyperbole, and a teacher who lives on a meager salary couldn’t possibly reward anyone 50M. The authoritarian regime just wants to send a chilling warning to critics,” Gaite said.
LGBT Group Bahaghari published a Facebook post to demand the ‘immediate release’ of Mas.
“Teacher Ronnel is another case of selective persecution against persons critical of Duterte’s botched crisis response. It is meant to send a chilling message to government critics and aimed at silencing dissent,” the group statement read.
“We must resist this weaponization of the law against Duterte’s critics. Stand against tyranny! Release Teacher Ronnel!” they added.
A few days ago, Ronnel Mas posted the controversial tweet saying that: “I will give 50-M reward kung sino ang makakap*tay kay Duterte #NoToABSCBNShutDown,”
The tweet of Mas has gone viral on the internet and concerned netizens asked the authorities to investigate the teacher.
On Monday, members of the NBI Pangasinan traced the location of the teacher who at first denied the allegations against him.
Later on, he admitted his mistakes and apologized to President Duterte.
The next day, Mas was brought to NBI Central Office in Manila where he was presented to the media and made another public apology.
However, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that apologizing was not enough for Mas to be safe from possible charges.
“I understand that this person has been placed in custody by the NBI and may be brought to an inquest. So I’ll leave it to the investigating prosecutor,” Guevarra said.
“However, an apology is not one of the grounds for extinguishing crminal liability. I cannot feloniously injure another and get away with it by merely saying sorry,” he added.
The teacher is currently facing inciting to sedition charges and violations of code of conduct and ethical standard for public officials.
On the same day, a construction worker and habal-habal driver was caught by the members of CIDG in Aklan for imitating what Mas did on social media, boasting that he would double the bounty on Duterte’s head.