Court orders release on bail of teacher arrested over tweet

A court in Olongapo City has ordered the provisional release of the public high school teacher from Zambales who was arrested last week over a tweet offering P50-million for President Rodrigo Duterte's head.

After Ronnel Mas posted bail of P72,000, Judge Richard Paradeza of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to release him unless he is detained for another lawful cause.

The judge set the 25-year-old teacher's arraignment and pre-trial for May 28.

NBI chief public information officer Nick Suarez said Mas is still in the bureau's detention facility as of Tuesday afternoon. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said they expect him to be released at 8 p.m. as "the family is still in transit from Zambales with a copy of the release order."

ACT welcomed the release order, which came eight days after Mas was arrested and detained, and called it an "initial victory."

"Justice, however, is yet to be gained. The Duterte government shall answer for their blatant disregard of Teacher Ronnel’s rights and freedoms when the NBI coerced him into admission, presented to and humiliated him in front of the press, and illegally detained him for eight days," ACT said.

Mas was arrested without a warrant in Zambales over a tweet in which he offered P50 million to whoever could kill the president.

The inquest prosecutor who investigated the complaint against him found that his warrantless arrest was not among the valid grounds but that this "defect" was "cured" by his admission to the media that he had posted the tweet.

He faces a case for inciting to sedition in relation to cybercrime. -MDM, GMA News