THE National Press Club (NPC) yesterday alleged a provincial correspondent of the Manila Times was behind the “fake” news that led to the detention of a local executive from Quezon province for five months.
NPC president Paul Gutierrez said Pangasinan-based Jaime Aquino supposedly manufactured the bogus rape and kidnapping charges slapped against Lopez, Quezon Councilor Arkie Manuel Yulde.
“We don’t know what is worse — media groups inventing journalists as victims of violence so they can get funding from abroad, or members of the press concocting bogus charges against prominent personalities in exchange for money,” Gutierrez said at the “Meet the Press” forum at the NPC building on Tuesday.
Gutierrez was joined at the press conference by Yulde and his counsel, lawyer Freddie Villamor. “We are (again) announcing the expulsion of Mr. Jaime Aquino from the roster of NPC members without any possibility of reinstatement,” Gutierrez also said. Yulde, who was jailed on rape and kidnapping charges which Aquino allegedly manufactured and maliciously spread, decried the injustice done to him and his family.
“I do not know how I can get justice from what has been done to me and my family. As a town councilor, all I wanted was for the truth to come out and for justice to be done. All I wanted was a clean government, especially in our town,” Yulde said in Filipino.
He said that while he was in jail, “I prayed hard and asked for the Lord’s intervention so I can clear my name and get out of jail,” especially after his father had a heart attack and died. “Up to his death, my father was thinking how he can clear our family’s name which was destroyed by these scheming people,” he added.
Villamor said the three cases filed against the Lopez, Quezon councilor have already been dismissed after their camp was able to present evidence that the accusations were manufactured, including his alleged rape victim. (PR)
