JOURNALISTS who filed criminal charges against Camiguin Representative Jurdin Jesus Romualdo filed a motion to transfer the case from Camiguin province to Cagayan de Oro.
Regional State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa said he received the motion of Herbert Hugo Dumaguing, 43, and his son Hubert, 21, for the transfer on Monday.
Umpa said he immediately ordered for the transfer of the case from Camiguin to Cagayan de Oro, addressed to Camiguin Provincial Prosecutor Alma Concepcion-Pareño.
He also ordered Pareño to turn over all the documents related the case.
In their motion, the Dumaguings requested that the case be transferred to Cagayan de Oro and asked for Pareño's inhibition from the case.
The Dumaguings cited doubts on the way Pareño handled the case and feared that she might be influenced by Romualdo.
The Dumaguings earlier accused Romualdo of mauling them while on coverage in Camiguin a few days before the election. The mauling resulted after the Dumaguings allegedly caught on video the vote-buying activities of Romualdo's supporters.
The father-and-son tandem is connected with RR Productions, a production outfit that contracts airtime at Parasat Cable TV Channel 13, a local cable television channel in Cagayan de Oro.
After the alleged mauling, the Dumaguings were reportedly trapped in Camiguin and were able to go home to Cagayan de Oro after the intervention of the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Philippine National Police. (Annabelle L. Ricalde)