DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 July) – The camp of defeated vice-presidential candidate Dr. Walden Bello has criticized Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla for his apparent inaction on their petition seeking the review and dismissal of the cyber libel complaint filed against him by former Davao City information officer Jefry Tupas.
In a virtual press conference via Zoom, Atty. Estrella C. Elamparo, a member of Bello’s legal team, said they filed a manifestation with urgent prayer to resolve the petition for review with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday.
She said that Bello’s legal team is aware of the National Prosecution Service Rule preventing the DOJ from giving due course to the petition for review after the arraignment of the accused, but maintained that he “should not be faulted for the gross negligence and for the inaction of DOJ.”
The legal team of Bello filed a petition for review with the DOJ on July 29, 2022.
Elamparo said the DOJ denied the petition in an August 31, 2022 resolution based on “flimsy grounds,” particularly the non-service of the copy of the appeal to Tupas and the failure to file a motion to defer arraignment. Bello received the DOJ ruling on September 6, 2022.
On September 15, 2022, Bello filed a motion for reconsideration, which Remulla did not act upon allegedly.
Elamparo said the camp of Tupas was furnished with a copy of their petition.
In their five-page manifestation, the counsels of Bello said the DOJ might have overlooked the “pertinent registry receipt and Affidavit of Service submitted along with the petition.”
The manifestation added that the DOJ “failed to appreciate the fact that when the Petition for Review was filed, respondent-appellant (Bello) had not yet posted bail and, therefore, could not have filed yet a motion to defer arraignment.”
“At that time, no arraignment had yet been set since the trial court had not even acquired jurisdiction over the respondent-appellant,” it reads.
Bello was arraigned last January 26 at the Regional Trial Court in Davao City after the lapse of the 60-day period given by the court to allow the DOJ to review the petition. In the arraignment, the trial court entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf after he refused to do so.
Elamparo said that Bello “has no legal standing” to file a motion to defer the arraignment before the RTC as the trial court had yet to acquire jurisdiction over him at the time the petition for review was filed with the DOJ.
She said the filing of motion to defer arraignment was an “impossible requirement” before the DOJ could take cognizance of the petition.
The inaction on the petition for review has robbed Bello of “a remedy aimed at protecting those accused from senseless persecution,” the counsel said.
In June 2022, the Office of the City Prosecutor here found “defamatory” Bello’s statement, delivered during a live interview and later posted on his verified Facebook account on March 1, alleging that Tupas and her friends were “snorting P1.5 million worth of drugs” and describing him as a “drug dealer.”
Bello’s post that led to his indictment reads in part: “Mayor (Sara) Duterte’s Press Information Officer, Jefry Tupas, was nabbed at a beach party where she and her friends were snorting 1.5 million pesos worth of drugs on November 6, 2021. Now, the Mayor’s excuse that she did not know that she was sheltering a drug dealer does not wash, it is not credible.”
Atty. Danilo Balucos, one of Bello’s lawyers, said their client will be in Davao City for the preliminary conference on August 10.
Elamparo believed that the complaint of cyber libel was “weak.”
“In fact, I was surprised that this case even reached our courts because under our procedure, there is supposed to be a preliminary investigation that should filter out the cases… The preliminary investigation should have weeded out this case, which was clearly filed for political persecution at the height of the campaign where Ka Walden was a candidate for vice-president,” she said.
She said Bello’s statement “was bereft of malice,” an important element to sustain conviction for cyber libel.
Elamparo said Bello was only citing the reports of the local press that Tupas figured in the controversial drug operation at a beach party at a resort in Mabini, Davao de Oro on November 6, 2021. During the raid, personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency seized illegal drugs, including marijuana and party drugs.
“He (Bello) never claimed to have been present during the police operation. He was merely reporting a matter of great public interest and importance, especially during the time of the election campaign,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
