MANILA, Philippines — Columnist Ramon Tulfo on Thursday admitted that his expose claiming that former House Speaker Martin Romualdez could go in and out of jail was erroneous.
The retraction comes after Romualdez camp sent a letter to Tulfo on Wednesday.
READ: Court to BJMP: Did you let Romualdez out?
“I was fed the wrong report that former Speaker Martin Romualdez could go in and out of jail,” Tulfo’s Facebook post reads.
Tulfo also said reports that Romualdez was “riding in an ambulance and the brownouts taking place so he would not be seen going out and coming back in” were not true.
“No such thing happened when the facts started coming in yesterday. It was fiction. I goofed. No excuses. I should have first checked and cross-checked that report I received on Romualdez,” he added.
READ: BJMP allows Romualdez’s staff to attend to his needs, court told
Tulfo’s reports prompted the Sandiganbayan Third Division to conduct a hearing to check on Romualdez’s condition in jail.
During the hearing, Romualdez’s counsel told the court that it had asked Tulfo to delete his Facebook posts.
“That was very damaging to our client because it has a tendency to inflame the public,” Romualdez’s lawyer Via Valdecantos told the court.
“I was just informed that Mr. Ramon Tulfo posted in a Facebook post. He admitted that the source was wrong,” the lawyer added.
Valdecantos then read Tulfo’s retraction in its entirety before the court.
After the hearing, the Romualdez camp also shared a copy of the cease-and-desist order it had issued against Tulfo.
“The allegations are not harmless pieces of gossip,” according to the two-page letter signed by Romualdez’s lawyer, Felix Michael Villa.
“They impute serious misconduct and extraordinary privileges within a detention facility, and cast aspersions upon the integrity of the officials and personnel tasked with administering our Client’s detention,” it added.
Villa demanded that Tulfo immediately cease and desist from publishing such allegations and refrain from making further statements or insinuations that Romualdez had left the Quezon City Jail.
“Should you fail to comply, or in case there is a republication of these allegations, our Client shall pursue all available remedies without further notice,” according to the letter.
They also demanded that Tulfo remove or correct the post and issue a clear and prominent clarification that its allegations had been categorically denied. Tulfo did so in his post.
Romualdez’s lawyer Ade Fajardo said their camp would discuss its next steps following the clarifications issued by Tulfo. /mcm /apl /mcm