Journo sued for libel won’t stop book on VP Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — The 72-year-old journalist recently sued for cyberlibel by the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte will ask that the case be transferred to Metro Manila instead of being tried in Davao City, where the complaint was filed, citing fears for his safety.

But still, Philip Lustre Jr. on Wednesday said the charges filed by lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio would not stop his current book project on the Vice President, which he said would include her ongoing Senate impeachment trial.

“As my friends said in jest, [the case] is promoting my books,” said Lustre, who earlier authored “Kill, Kill, Kill: Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines,” which investigates the deadly war on drugs under President Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President’s father.

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READ: Journalist Lustre on Carpio’s cyberlibel case: ‘I don’t let fear immobilize me’

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“The fear is there. I’m not saying I’m great, I’m not saying I’m brave. But I don’t let fear immobilize me,” Lustre said in a press conference together with his defense lawyer, Dino de Leon, four days after he was arrested by the police at a Quezon City restaurant on Oct. 24, a Saturday.

No info on accuser

He was released later in the day after posting bail at P43,000. De Leon later issued a statement alleging violations of his client’s right to due process, noting that Lustre was unaware that he was facing a libel complaint until that day, and that the arresting officers provided no information regarding the identity of the accuser or the published material being complained about.

READ: Mans Carpio’s spox to Philip Lustre: Don’t play the victim

On the day of Lustre’s arrest, the only detail made public by the Quezon City police was that the warrant was issued Oct. 2 by Judge Retrina Fuentes of Davao City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 10, and that Lustre’s supposed address for serving the warrant was the Inquirer office on Mola Street, Makati City (Lustre is not a regular columnist or staff member of the Inquirer but has contributed opinion pieces to the paper).

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De Leon earlier said his client did not receive any subpoena or formal notice about the complaint, neither was there a preliminary investigation conducted where the veteran journalist could have responded to the accusation prior to the issuance of the warrant.

Only on Monday did it become clear that Carpio was the complainant, and that he sued Lustre over an allegation posted on Facebook on March 6.

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In the post, Lustre claimed that Carpio financed the emergence of the so-called 18 Marines, group of men presented to the media in February by lawyer Levito Baligod and former congressman Mike Defensor, and who claimed they delivered suitcases of cash representing kickbacks from public works projects to some lawmakers and political figures on the orders of then Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, chair of the House committee on appropriations.

Lustre earlier described what was done to him as “a special operation’’ hatched in Davao City, bailiwick of the Dutertes. He expounded on this on Wednesday, saying: “I’m really a target there. I feel like I’ve become special in their eyes, and I can’t blame them for that because I’ve written two books [about the Dutertes], and they were hit hard.”

Aside from “Kill, Kill, Kill’’, Lustre also authored “Bumps: Fifty Years of Dictatorship and Democracy in the Philippines (1977-2022).”

Prearraignment remedies

De Leon said they would formally ask for a change of trial venue, aside from raising other questions regarding Lustre’s arrest.

“For the court, we are in the process of filing prearraignment remedies including a motion for reinvestigation, a motion to quash and to of course transfer the venue,” De Leon said at Wednesday’s press conference.

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“Of course, we do not feel safe in Davao City, considering the known proclivity of the Duterte family for violence,” he said. “I don’t think we will feel safe, the accused and lawyers, traveling all the way to Davao City.” —With a report from John Eric Mendoza