It’s hard to miss the irony. While allies and supporters of fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa demand due process in effecting his arrest on crimes against humanity charges, the same right seems to have been ignored in the case of veteran journalist Philip Lustre Jr.
Lustre was cuffed, arrested, and processed on cyberlibel charges Saturday last week with a warrant that was suspect for its irregularities. The court papers were addressed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, where Lustre never held office and is not affiliated with the company.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla noted that this is a known “modus” where complainants provide a wrong address so that respondents never receive the notice and are declared in default, allowing a warrant to be issued without their knowledge.
The warrant also did not identify the complainant since it was issued based on an “Information” document rather than the preliminary complaint. In a copy of the original warrant that Lustre’s lawyer, Dino de Leon, later managed to secure from the Davao Regional Trial Court where the case was filed, the complainant turned out to be Manases Carpio, Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband.
Served on Saturday when court offices were closed, and processing bail would’ve been difficult, the warrant seems calculated to keep Lustre behind bars the entire weekend. Fortunately, defense lawyers eventually located an emergency duty night judge who processed the P48,000 bail that the journalist’s friends had raised.
Weaponizing the law
According to the complaint, Lustre was being charged for posting on Facebook on March 6, 2026, that Carpio coughed up P300 million to former congressman Mike Defensor, lawyer Levi Baligod, and the 18 purported Marines for them to hatch a story about several bags of cash allegedly given to former Speaker Martin Romualdez as the latter’s share in anomalous flood control contracts.
It didn’t help that just a day earlier, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte had filed similar libel and cyberlibel complaints against GMA-7 news reporters and broadcasters, and National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag, over a report aired on the network alleging that cash was delivered to the lawmaker by an aide of former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.
After all, the Dutertes have never shied away from weaponizing the law to silence critics — from former Human Rights Commissioner and now Mamamayang Liberal Party-away list Rep. Leila de Lima, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, and Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang. All three were whistleblowers: on the rights abuses when Rodrigo Duterte was Davao City mayor; on Duterte’s overseas bank accounts; and on his family’s ill-gotten wealth, based on anti-money laundering reports, respectively.
Chilling effect
Recall as well how the former president had muzzled media critical of his policies, from revoking ABS-CBN’s franchise to filing a string of charges against news website Rappler, and harassing the Inquirer owners on bogus tax charges.
Just as suspect is the timing of Lustre’s arrest. As the vice president’s impeachment trial winds down and the 2028 election prospects heat up, could the libel suit be a warning to the media to go easy in reporting the trial’s conclusions on the VP’s fitness for public office?
What is apparent is how Lustre’s highly suspect arrest could have a chilling effect on journalists who dare speak truth to power. As De Leon noted, while people have the right to seek legal remedies against defamatory statements, it cannot be denied that criminal libel laws can be used to intimidate journalists and silence government critics.
“Make no mistake: an attack on one media institution is an attack on the entire free press and on the people’s right to know,” ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said, adding that journalists are merely performing their duty as enshrined in the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press as a cornerstone of democracy.
Decriminalization of libel
While De Leon has said that Lustre will exhaust all legal remedies to file appropriate countercharges “to vindicate his rights,” he also called on the Department of Justice to investigate whether Davao City prosecutors are routinely skirting the regular process to swiftly act on complaints by the Duterte family.
Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon meanwhile said that Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida may immediately order an investigation into the Davao City prosecutor’s lapses or potential negligence. Was addressing the arrest warrant to the Inquirer office a simple lapse or something more sinister?
Media groups should also keep pushing for the decriminalization of libel in the country, as such cases not only intimidate the press, but also restrict their access to important sources, exhaust their time attending hearings in remote areas of jurisdiction, and drain their resources seeking legal recourse.
Powerful individuals who run afoul of the law seek to turn journalism into a crime; it’s the duty of every citizen to make sure they don’t succeed. /atm