ILOILO City – The Regional Trial Court (RTC) – Branch 90 in Quezon City indicted Councilor Plaridel Nava for 12 counts of cyber libel filed by Iloilo City’s Rep. Julienne Baronda.
Baronda originally filed 65 counts of cyber libel but the investigating prosecutor dismissed the 53 counts, as well as the 15 counts of grave threats for insufficiency of evidence.
Following the issuance of a warrant of arrest, Nava went to Manila on Thursday, Oct. 20, to voluntarily surrender to the jurisdiction of the court and posted bail amounting to P576,000.
“The Facebook posts made by the respondent is malicious, considering, that the there is no apparent good motive and intention in making the writings. The respondent may, have expressed her disgust and discontent with the complainant, but obviously he ascribed defects or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance unto her without regard to the truthfulness or falsity thereof, hence, were made with no other purpose but to injure the reputation of the complainant,” read part of the resolution dated June 3, 2022 and penned by Assistant City Prosecutor Joenle R. Competente and approved by City Prosecutor Vimar M. Barcellano.
The congresswoman, in her complaint affidavit, stated that sometime in July 2019 until July 2020, the respondent, using his personal Facebook account, posted malicious imputations that caused her dishonor and contempt.
Among others, the alleged Facebook post referred the complainant as mango (stupid or brainless), devil, aswang, crazy, garbage/trash, fool, virus, mentally ill, shameless, idiot, hopia, son-of-bitch, rotten, classless, crazy son-of-a-bitch, useless woman, no breeding, pig, momo (ghost), causing dishonor and disrespect, and subject her to public humiliation and ridicule.
The complainant was also attributed a crime when the respondent posted that the former enriched herself through corruption and SOP — an acronym synonymous to a bribe.
‘NOT HIS FACEBOOK’
In his counter-affidavit, however, Nava denied all the accusations of Baronda and claimed he does not own or manage the Facebook account under the name “Plaridel C. Nava”, that allegedly posted the defamatory and libelous remarks against her.
Moreover, Nava asserted that there is no evidence to prove that he is the creator of the fake “Plaridel C. Nava” account and the author of the alleged libelous remarks.
He added that there is no electronic forensic, no tracing of IP addresses and not a single witness to support the complainant’s accusations.
In an interview over DYRI RMN Iloilo, Nava expressed that he is ready to face the charges and he respects the right of Baronda to file charges.
He also accused Baronda of harassment for filing the complaint in Quezon City when she can file it in Iloilo City where she resides.
“Obviously, Baronda filed these cases in Quezon City not for justice’s sake but to make my life difficult,” he said.
On the other hand, Baronda’s legal counsel, Atty. Jeric Jucaban, said they are happy with the progress of the cases.
“Nagakatingala lang kami sa mga statements nga ginpagwa ni Konsehal Nava. Naga-gwa pa nga daw nagakalipay s’ya kuno kay ti kadam-an sang amon gin-akusar sa iya gin-dismiss pero kon tan-awon ang cyber libel may penalty nga maximum eight years for every count. Kon ikaw bala may risk nga mapriso ka sang 96 years malipay ka pa ayhan? So nagakatingala kami sang iya nga reaction,” said Jucaban.
He added that they can still appeal before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the complaints that were dismissed by the prosecutor.
“May ara pa man apela nga amon himuon sa Department of Justice. Hopefully madugangan pa ini,” he said./PN
