DAVAO CITY – The camp of activist Dr. Walden Bello took Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to task for his inaction on the petition that his counsels filed, seeking the review and dismissal of the cyber libel complaints filed against him by ex-Davao City Information Officer Jefry Tupas.
In a virtual press conference, Atty. Estrella C. Elamparo, a member of the defeated vice-presidential candidate’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 Bello's legal team was 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 the DOJ.”
Bello said he was hoping Remulla would act according to his function, and not allow political considerations to get in the way of justice.
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, which was received by Bello on September 6, 2022.
She alleged that the dismissal was based on “flimsy grounds”, particularly on the non-service of the copy of the appeal to Tupas, and the failure to file a motion to defer arraignment.
On September 15, 2022, Bello filed a motion for reconsideration, which Remulla reportedly did not act on.
She said the camp of Tupas was furnished with a copy of the 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 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 when he refused to do so.
Elamparo added that Bello had no legal standing to file a motion to defer the arraignment before 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 a 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 last 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 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.”
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 is clearly filed for political persecution at the height of camping 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 the conviction for cyber libel.
She said Bello was only citing the reports of the local press that Tupas figured in the controversial drug operations at a beach party at a resort in Mabini, Davao de Oro on November 6, 2021, when personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a raid and seized illegal drugs, including marijuana and party drugs.
“He (Bello) never claimed to have been present during police operations. He was merely reporting a matter of great public interest and importance especially during the time of the election campaign,” she said.