(CMFR/IFEX) – An editor-publisher, charged last month with inciting to sedition, has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the case against her and two other columnists. Ninez Cacho-Olivares, editor-in-chief and publisher of “The Daily Tribune”, and two other columnists of the same newspaper asked the DOJ on 10 April 2006 to dismiss the […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – An editor-publisher, charged last month with inciting to sedition, has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the case against her and two other columnists.
Ninez Cacho-Olivares, editor-in-chief and publisher of “The Daily Tribune”, and two other columnists of the same newspaper asked the DOJ on 10 April 2006 to dismiss the “inciting to sedition” charges filed against them by the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Based on the 11 April 2006 issue of the “Tribune”, Olivares’s counsel Rene Saguisag filed an eleven-page counter-affidavit which also served as the motion to dismiss what he described as “the cockamamie, petty and pathetic charges.”
According to a report by the national daily “Malaya”, Olivares demanded that the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) return the materials allegedly stolen from the journalists.
The PNP-CIDG seized the materials during a raid at the “Tribune” office on 25 February, at the height of President Arroyo’s declaration of a state of national emergency.
PNP filed charges against Olivares and “Tribune” columnists Ike Seneres and Herman Tiu-Laurel after confiscating allegedly seditious articles.
In the preliminary investigation on 10 April 2006, led by state prosecutor Philip Kimpo, Saguisag reportedly said that evidence illegally obtained cannot be used. The raid at the “Tribune” offices was conducted without benefit of a court order.
Seneres and Laurel also filed separate motions for the DOJ to drop their cases. Laurel reportedly said that the allegedly seditious articles attributed to him “are just fair exposition of the present circumstances and the general sentiments of the people.”
As of this writing, the DOJ has not responded to the motions filed by Olivares, Seneres and Laurel.
