The National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), the country’s biggest organization of active members of the press, on Wednesday announced the expulsion from its roster of members, without any possibility of reinstatement, of Jaime Aquino, formerly a provincial correspondent in Pangasinan of the Manila Times.

At a joint press conference at the NPC building with Palace Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, Executive Director of Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), and lawyer Freddie Villamor, NPC president Paul Gutierrez said Aquino and his group in Pangasinan have been accused of manufacturing bogus rape cases that led to the incarceration for nine months in Pangasinan of Villamor’s client, Lopez, Quezon councilor, Arkie Manuel Yulde.

Yulde, who is a critic of a political figure in Quezon, was sent to jail on the basis of a rape and kidnapping cases concocted by the group of Aquino and which they also used to besmirch his name and reputation in the media, that caused the untimely death of his parents.

Yulde was released only recently after Villamor managed to present evidence that the charges against him were also fake, to include his alleged rape victim.

Early this year, Aquino and his group, composed of his live-in partner, workers and other shady members of the Pangasinan press, also tried the same ruse against Cagayan Export Zone Authority (CEZA) administrator and Northern Luzon presidential adviser, Secretary Raul Lambino and his wife, Mangaldan mayor Marilyn Lambino.

Lambino was accused of 10 counts of rape, child abuse and serious physical injuries while his wife was charged with abuse of authority, grave misconduct, dishonesty, and oppression before the Office of the Ombudsman, purportedly by their two former house helps.

But investigation revealed that the accusations against the Lambinos are all concoctions of Aquino. Aquino also tried to add credibility to his scenario by creating the person of one Prof. Salvador de Guzman, chair of the ‘Citizen Movement Against Crime, Corruption Illegal Drugs and Gambling, Inc.

Investigation, however, established that Aquino and de Guzman are one and the same person and the ‘citizen movement’ which supported the Lambinos’ alleged victims is also a phantom organization.

“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.

“We are now announcing the expulsion of Mr. Jaime Aquino from the roster of NPC members without any possibility of reinstatement,” Gutierrez added.

Gutierrez also reiterated the NPC’s call for members of the press to strictly adhere to their Code of Ethics and not to be tempted to resort to criminal methods to earn money or allow themselves to be used for partisan political activities, especially during this election season.

He also thanked the Manila Times for promptly dismissing Aquino effective last January 18, 2022, after getting suspicious of the stories he has been filing, especially the hatchet job on the Lambino couple.

Aquino would be the fourth member of the NPC to be officially booted out of the organization for gross violation of the Journalist Code of Ethics and its policies since 2016. (PR) (PNA)

(Photo credits to: PNA)