Sara Duterte’s husband Mans Carpio behind cyberlibel case vs Lustre
By Saghir Hussain ·
Look, I'll level with you — Manila's power plays usually feel a world away from a wet Tuesday in Wigan. But when the Vice President's husband, Mans Carpio, personally hauls a 70-year-old journalist into court over a Facebook post, it's not just Philippine noise. It's a masterclass in how the powerful silence awkward questions everywhere.
Philip Lustre Jr. wrote that Carpio had "unexplained wealth." Carpio cried cyberlibel. The NBI arrested Lustre at dawn. No warrant shown, his lawyer says. Sound familiar? It should. We've got oligarchs in London using British courts to bankrupt reporters with SLAPP suits. Our government promised to fix it. Two years later, the Economic Crime Bill's anti-SLAPP provisions are still "under review." Funny, that.
Meanwhile, 150,000 British-Filipinos watch this stuff closely. My mate's mum in Earls Court messages me every time Duterte's clan squeezes a newspaper — she worked nursing shifts for thirty years so her kids wouldn't live under that kind of fear. She votes here. She pays tax here. She deserves a government that calls out authoritarian habits in trade partners, not one that nods along for a defence deal.
The Marcos-Duterte marriage is cracking. Carpio's case looks like a man protecting his flank. But every time a journalist gets cuffed for doing their job, the price of truth goes up — in Manila, in Moscow, and yes, in London too.
So here's my question: if we won't defend press freedom in Manila, what happens when the same playbook lands on our doorstep?