Vehemently denying involvement in an alleged black propaganda campaign targeting Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, Malacanang’s top legislative liaison filed a libel complaint against the lawmaker before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, February 24.
Undersecretary Jacinto Paras, chief of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, accused Tan of unfairly accusing him of a wrongdoing when she delivered a privilege speech on the House plenary hall recently.
In the privilege speech, Tan, chairperson of the House Committee on Health, directly linked Paras to the “Tiktok” video allegedly accusing her and her husband, Regional Director Ronel Tan of the Department of Public Works and Highways, of involvement in corrupt activities.
She said the Tiktok material was traced from the news website, www.sovereignph.,com, that Paras owned.
A former congressman who represented Negros Oriental, Paras vehemently denied posting any Tiktok video, including the one referred to by Tan in her privilege speech.
In the privilege speech, Tan also allegedly accused Paras of of stealing the mobile phone of former Rep. Tom Villarin.
“First, she said she does not know me personally, second the accusation from a 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 a cellphone thief unless she is thoughtless and carefree without being considerate to her fellow human being,” Paras said in his complaint.
Paras said the accusations hurled by Tan were not only lies, but were also “malicious and defamatory”.
“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 involve din theft of a cellphone, tantamount to saying I am a thief. And for that she is guilty of committing libel against me,” the former solons aid. Paras stated that in delivering a privilege speech that contained “false accusations” against him, Tan only had one purpose “which is to injure and ridicule me”, thus exposing him to “public hatred, contempt and ridicule.“