Former president Rodrigo Duterte (Malacañang photo)

The Makabayan bloc has filed a House resolution that seeks to condemn ex-president  Rodrigo Duterte’s death threat against ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro. 

In House Resolution (HR) No. 1428, the militant solons urged the House of Representatives to condemn Duterte for the statements he made in an episode of “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI). 

Specifically, Makabayan pushed for condemnation against the “fake news peddling, baseless red-tagging, and gave threats” of the former president. 

During the program, the Duterte went on a tirade, and insinuated that Castro was a member of the New People’s Army (NPA). The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) 

He also threatened to "kill" Castro, using his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds. 

The elder Duterte's statements were seemingly triggered by the House’s realignment of P1.23 billion in confidential funds from Vice President Duterte’s Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) into enforcement agencies patrolling the West Philippine Sea (WPS). 

Makabayan also called out SMNI, its shows and hosts, for their supposed repeated engagements in disseminating fake news and malicious red-tagging. 

“SMNI habitually engages in the ‘reporting’ as news of misleading claims and biased opinions, deliberately disseminating false information, willful misrepresentation, wild accusations, and red-tagging against the opposition, critics, and officials of the government,” the resolution read. 

Makabayan claimed that SMNI violated numerous provisions of the 2007 Broadcaster Code of the Philippines for its shows considered detrimental of public interest. 

The progressive group is asking the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to investigate SMNI “in light of media and journalism standards and existing laws”.