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Friday, March 29, 2024

Joy B files 100+ cyber-libel cases vs. rival Defensor

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Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday filed over 100 cyber libel suits against Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, her rival for the mayoralty in the May 9 elections, before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly “crossing the boundaries of free speech.”

Defensor supposedly posted on social media that Belmonte organized a “Baklas army” removing his campaign materials, and that in the same post, he labeled the mayor as “mapanghati, mapanira, kasuka-suka, at kapit-tuko sa kapangyarihan” [divisive, slanderous, sickening, and grasping tightly to power].

“I don’t usually look at Facebook pages, especially if I know that they would be of no use or benefit. In truth, as soon as he [Defensor] decided to run for mayor, we already knew that he would engage in the kind of behavior he is now displaying,” Belmonte said.

“Sometime in early February, however, I was informed by a concerned citizen that his official posts were already libelous. When I finally read them, I confirmed that these were no longer acceptable nor tolerable, and legal lines were crossed,” she added.

Defensor laughed off Belmonte’s complaint, dismissing it as “a cheap publicity gimmick.”

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“The complaint is silly and futile because Mayor Belmonte is an elected official, not a private individual. And she knows this,” the congressman said in a statement.

“Mayor Belmonte is obviously just trying to draw attention to herself. She is just after the extra publicity at my expense,” Defensor said.

“The Supreme Court has time and against stressed that elected officials should not be onion-skinned or overly sensitive when it comes to public criticism,” he said.

“Like me, Mayor Belmonte is an elected official. We both cannot run away from harsh public scrutiny and disapproval,” the solon added.

Defensor urged Belmonte to resign as mayor if she can’t stand public denunciation.

“The mayor is just wasting the resources of the prosecutor’s office which has real and pressing cases to deal with,” Defensor said.

“We would urge Mayor Belmonte to stop her antics, and to respond instead to the criminal complaints for plunder filed against her in connection with the P713 million worth of overpriced ayuda food packs that she bought,” he said.

According to Belmonte, Defensor claimed in another post that a Quezon City Hall employee was set to file a plunder case against the mayor at the Office of the Ombudsman because of purported “overpriced ayuda.”

Defensor “had echoed this overpricing allegation repeatedly in both online and offline channels, despite the fact that several fact-checking organizations, and even the Commission on Audit itself, have gone on record to say that no irregularities took place,” the mayor’s statement said.

The city’s legal officer, Niño Casimiro, said: “There is no question that all elements of the crime of Libel in relation to the Cybercrime Act of 2012 are present: there is an imputation of a crime, vice or defect in the posts; they were irresponsibly made public with unconscionable malice and with full knowledge that they are false; and were purposely made to cause the dishonor, discredit, and destroy the reputation of Mayor Joy Belmonte.”

“While being disrespectful and ungentlemanly is not necessarily a crime, a sitting Congressman should know that there is a law punishing such behavior when it goes too far,” he added.

“We have established that there is a host of other Facebook Pages that are all orchestrated under one group, which have links to Congressman Defensor and his co-respondents, May Guia Padilla, Carmelo Paulo Bayarcal, and Oliver Macatangay. These include pages such as Batang QC, Kurapsyon QC, Taga Quezon City Ako, Quezon City Gladiators, DDS ng Quezon City, and Lente ng Kyusi,” Casimiro cited.

The legal department said it has identified 102 posts “which may be counted as unique and individual cases of libel, and we are not stopping there.” 

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