Search You Are Here:Home → 2021 → February → 12 → Prosecutors keep journalist, labor organizer in jail despite dismissal of charges Prosecutors keep journalist, labor organizer in jail despite dismissal of charges By EMILY VITAL MANILA – Government prosecutors are blocking the release of journalist Lady Ann Salem and labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago despite the local court’s dismissing the charges against them last Feb. 5. The City Prosecutor Office of Mandaluyong, on behalf of the Philippine National Police, filed on Feb. 9 an opposition to the urgent motion for release filed by Salem’s lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC). The prosecutors claimed that the decision of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209 is not yet final, thus, Salem and Esparago could not yet be released.