THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has junked the cyber libel raps filed last year against Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and several former Makabayan bloc party-list representatives by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group over the police’s alleged planting of evidence and red tagging activities.
The two-page resolution approved by Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento cited “lack of merit” in dismissing the case filed by the PNP-CIDG in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Aside from Brosas, also named as respondents in the complaint were former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, former Gabriela party-list representative Liza Maza, and Gabriela spokesperson Luzviminda Ilagan.
Zarate, who is the executive vice president of Bayan Muna, welcomed the junking of what he said was a “harassment” suit filed by the police.
“We laud our state prosecutors for junking the utterly baseless cyber libel case filed by the PNP-CIDG represented by Major Jonathan Mostoles in 2021. Like the other harassment suits filed against us by state agents, this latest case was also dismissed because it is destitute of any merit. Clearly, it is a fatuous act only aimed to harass members of the progressive groups,” said Zarate.
Zarate said the police is just wasting time and people’s money in filing “trumped up and frivolous charges against the opposition and government critics.”
“In this time of severe crisis, why can’t the police use their time and resources instead in running after syndicates and cartels that caused the spike in basic necessities like sugar, salt, rice, and even oil and power? Or, by seriously going after the corrupt government officials and employees, the drug lords and other criminal syndicates that prey on our suffering poor people?” he asked.
In its complaint, the PNP-CIDG, represented by Maj. Jonathan Mostoles, alleged that the respondents in November 2021 posted “defamatory and libelous statements” against the police through the online edition of the broadsheet Manila Times and Inquirer.net.
Mostoles had said that in their posts, the respondents accused the PNP of engaging in the planting of evidence and red tagging after a team of CIDG operatives implemented a warrant of arrest issued by Branch 16 of the Ilagan City, Isabela regional trial court against a certain Lourdes Bulan who was charged of two counts of murder. — With Wendell Vigilia
