DAVAO CITY – The arraignment of losing vice presidential candidate Prof. Walden Bello has been set for Jan. 26 here after the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 dismissed the motion to quash the cyber libel charges filed against him by former Davao City Information Officer Jefry Tupas.
Bello’s camp had earlier asked the court to quash the two information from the City Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that the “facts charged do not constitute an offense” and the court is divested “with jurisdiction in cases where it is palpable that the criminal proceedings are acts of persecution rather than prosecution.”
In a 19-page order dated Dec. 28 but released to the media only on Thursday, Jan. 19, RTC Judge Retrina E. Fuentes said that the criminal information sufficiently alleged the essential elements of the cyber libel charges contrary to the position of Bello’s legal team.
Fuentes said Bello’s camp also failed to substantiate their claim of political harassment, presenting no other proof “to adequately justify the perceived political persecution other than the series of newspaper articles regarding Tupas’ involvement in the drug raid.”
She said that Bello’s counsels failed to “prove that both the public and private prosecutors were motivated by hostility or ill will of any kind in prosecuting the instance case.”
“Respondents must prove that the public prosecutor, not just the private complainant, acted in bad faith in prosecuting the case or has lent himself to a scheme could have no other purpose than to place respondents in contempt and disrepute. It must be shown that the complainant possesses the power and the influence to control the prosecution of cases,” Fuentes said.
Luke Espiritu, Bello’s lead counsel, said in a statement that he regrets the decision but added that their legal team is preparing for a long battle against the charges.
Espiritu said that they remain confident that the “courts will ultimately vindicate” Bello, a critic of the previous Duterte administration.
Danilo Balucos, also one of Bello’s counsels, said he is disappointed by the dismissal of their motion but added that he has high hopes that the court will “rule in favor of the basic constitutional right of freedom of expression.”
“We highly appreciate that Judge Retrina Fuentes has been giving Prof. Bello all the available remedies provided in the Rules of Court,” he said.
Bello allegedly made defamatory remarks against Tupas on social media after he was involved in a controversial beach party in a resort in Mabini, Davao de Oro on Nov. 6, 2021 raided by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency where a sizeable amount of illegal drugs was seized.
Bello’s post that led to his indictment read in part: “Mayor 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.”