MANILA - The warrantless arrest of a 25-year-old teacher over a Twitter post was invalid according to prosecutors, but his media confession cured the defect, a copy of the inquest resolution showed F
riday.Ronnel Mas was arrested on May 11 in Zambales after he offered a bounty of P50 million to anyone who could kill President Rodrigo Duterte.
NBI operatives who tracked him down did not have a warrant but took him in custody and brought him to their headquarters in Manila where he confessed and apologized for his post.In a 7-page resolution, Assistant State Prosecutor Jeannette Dacpano said the arrest was invalid as it did not fall under any of the situations where a warrantless arrest is allowed.
"[T]he 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 in his own Twitter account @RonPrince_," she said.Dacpano cited a 2002 Supreme Court case which ruled: "Such a confession did not form part of custodial investigation. It was not given to police officers but to a media man in an apparent attempt to elicit sympathy...
On Wednesday, police arrested a sales agent in Agusan del Norte after he called the President "crazy" and an "asshole" in a Facebook post. "Inducing others to kill or cause physical harm to someone, whether the latter be the President of the Republic or an ordinary citizen, will give rise to criminal liability. Let's think before we tweet," he said.
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