by MATTHEW DAVE A. JUCOM
UST JOURNALISM coordinator Felipe Salvosa II has denounced his involvement in the malicious red-baiting claims created by a certain Facebook page “The Right Thomasian” last Dec. 28.
Salvosa aired his sentiments on Twitter after the page claimed that a faculty member of the journalism program introduced an alumnus to a recruiter which nearly led a student in joining the communist.
“Whoever is running the page is spreading a malicious and unfounded accusation via a seemingly innocuous blind item. The author of the post however dropped a hint in the comments section, which was why I felt alluded to,” Salvosa said.
The page claimed that this journalism faculty member was a former editor-in-chief of Bulatlat, which they hide under the name of “Bulatlat Lord.”
Although there were no names mentioned, the comments referred to the professor as “the second hokage” and the one who released a statement regarding the ABS-CBN shutdown.
“I did not and will not recruit students for the communist rebellion,” Salvosa said.
Salvosa also said that he was not a staff of the Bulatlat.com but was an editor-in-chief of The Varsitarian, UST’s official student publication, as opposed to what the page has claimed.
“[A]s a faculty member and journalism program head of UST, I am fully committed to the rules and regulations of the University, its vision and mission, its Catholic identity, and to the molding of committed, compassionate and competent Thomasians,” Salvosa said.
He also challenged the administrators of the page to show concrete evidence that will support their malicious claims.
“The owners of this page should show evidence that I recruited for the armed rebellion, not hide behind anonymity and blind items,” he said.
A day after Salvosa aired his counterclaims, the page administrators said in a separate Facebook post that they will not confirm or deny their blind items.
“We will not confirm or deny our blind items sobrang vague ng clues namin it could be anyone you imagine lmao. Malay nyo fictional pala yun at jumbled facts lang,” they said.
“Disinformation. Character assassination. Malicious insinuation. No attribution. Exactly the things we warn our journalism students about,” the journalism program coordinator said in a separate tweet last Dec. 30 together with the screenshots of the aforementioned post. F
