The Manila Times Editor Asked to Resign After Criticizing Ouster Plot Story

THE MANILA Times Managing Editor Felipe Salvosa II resigned over the newspaper’s story on the alleged plot by media organizations and a lawyers’ group to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Times’ fact-challenged, Duterte-sourced banner story, written by its chairman emeritus Dante Ang, linked media groups Vera Files, Rappler and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), as well as the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) to an alleged ouster plot. It presented a “matrix” linking them to Bikoy, the person behind the ‘narcolist video’ that accused the president’s friends and family of being involved in the illegal drug trade.

Ang was the publicist of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and is currently the Duterte regime’s Special Envoy for International Public Relations.

Salvosa denounced on Twitter the release of the story before resigning on April 24.

“A diagram is by no means evidence of ‘destabilization’ or an ‘ouster plot’,” Salvosa said. “It is a very huge stretch for anyone to accuse PCIJ, VERA Files or Rappler of actively plotting to unseat the president. I know people there and they are not coup plotters.”

In a statement issued by the newspaper on April 25, Times President Dante “Klink” Ang II said Salvosa was asked to resign. Ang II claimed Salvosa behaved unethically when he posted a statement on social media without first notifying or clarifying with their chairman emeritus. He added that the publication has an “open-door policy” allowing employees to contact their chairman emeritus for editorial matters.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Salvosa said he felt it was time to leave the Times after the publication of the “matrix” story. “I posted about my thoughts on the story and the owners were displeased. I was asked to resign but I told them I was planning to quit anyway,” he added.

VERA Files journalist Ellen Tordesillas said that if this is the kind of intelligence report that the president bases his actions on, the country is in big trouble. Online news site Rappler, also tagged in the matrix, criticized the report as an example of what journalists should avoid. Neri Colmenares of lawyers’ group NUPL said that this latest attack is intended to sow fear among journalists and lawyers. PCIJ denied any involvement and pointed out the many inconsistencies in the matrix.

Salvosa is not the first individual to be forced out of The Manila Times this year. Earlier in March, columnist Francisco “Kit” Tatad claimed that Ang ordered him to write his “last column” following his story that the president had had a kidney transplant in China.