By CZARINA NICOLE ONG-KI
The second inciting to sedition case filed against teacher Ronnel Mas, who reportedly offered P50 million on Twitter to kill President Duterte, has been ordered dismissed by the Zambales provincial prosecutors’ office for lack of probable cause.
Mas’ first inciting to sedition charge was dismissed last year by the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) with a ruling that his alleged confession to a journalist did not cure the illegality of his arrest.
Thereafter, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) – through agent Rizaldy F. Jaymalin – refiled the charges before the prosecutors’ office in Zambales on May 11, 2020. The case was later re-assigned to the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office after the provincial prosecutor’s office inhibited from the resolving the complaint.
Probable cause “pertains to the existence of a state of facts in the mind of the prosecutor as would lead a person of ordinary caution and prudence to believe, or entertain an honest or strong suspicion, that a thing is so.”
Mas is said to be the owner of the Twitter account @RonPrince, who posted: “I will give 50 million reward kung sino makakapatay kay (to whoever could kill) Duterte #NotoABSCBNShutdown.”
In a resolution, Assistant Olongapo City Prosecutor Leonardo C. Santos, who took over as acting provincial prosecutor, said the burden of proof to establish probable cause lies with Jaymalin, who, unfortunately, failed to appear on Dec. 15, 2020.
Jaymalin was supposed to submit a reply-affidavit and produce the compact disc containing footage of Mar’s admission of the crime to a journalist.
In his resolution, Santos said the case against Mas failed to succeed since the complainant (Jaymalin) failed to prove the identity of the perpetrator.
While the remark was indeed made on Twitter, Santos explained that the authentication requirement under the Rules on Electronic Evidence was not met.
He pointed out that there was no proof that the post was made from a computer within the control of Mas as he stressed that such could have been done by tracing the IP address. Without the tracing of the IP address, anyone could have made a bogus account and just implicated Mas, he said.