A former legislator who is now a middle-level Malacanang official on Wednesday filed libel charges against a congresswoman from Quezon province for allegedly making damaging imputations against him in a privileged speech.
Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Undersecretary Jacinto Paras, a former congressman from Negros Oriental, filed the charges against Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan.
In a complaint at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, Paras claimed that parliamentary immunity did not cover the alleged defamation that Tan made against him in her privileged speech on February 8, 2020.
Tan, chairman of the House Committee on Health, delivered a privilege speech claiming that Paras was responsible for a TikTok video using material from a news website, www.sovereignph.com, that Paras owned that reported about allegations of corruption involving her and her husband Ronel Tan, the regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the Ilocos Region.
The news report was based on a complaint filed by a councilor from Lopez town in Quezon province, Paras said.
Paras denied posting any TikTok video, especially the posted video cited by Tan in her privileged speech. Tan said in her speech that the video has been pulled out from TikTok.
Tan has yet to react to the filing at press time. Calls and messages left by the Standard at her House office went unanswered.
In his complaint, Paras claimed that Tan libeled him “when she delivered her malicious and defamatory speech accusing me of being involved in stealing a cell phone or theft of a cell phone in the premises of the House of Representatives …”
“Calling me a cellphone theft (thief?) is reckless and irresponsible. First, she said she does not know me personally, second, the accusation from former Congressman Villarin that I stole his cell phone was outright dismissed by the Fiscal’s Office, so how could Angelina Tan hurl malicious and defamatory words against me calling me cellphone theft (thief?) unless she is thoughtless and carefree without being considerate to her fellow human beings,” Paras said.
“It is indisputably clear that there was an imputation of an act, condition, circumstance, or status against me as evinced by her statement that I was involved in theft of a cell phone, tantamount to saying I am a thief. And for that she is guilty of committing libel against me,” he added.
Paras also said: “The malicious and libelous imputation by respondent Angelina Tan in her speech which showed her anger against me whom she accused of posting a video in Tiktok which is actually a false accusation since I did not post any video on Tiktok, has only one purpose which is to injure and ridicule me and expose me to public hatred, contempt and ridicule.”
