Tabuk City, Kalinga – Three more other individuals were charged by City Mayor Darwin Estrañero with cyber libel after a certain Cezar S. Cabacungan Jr., sent the Mayor links and screenshots of ‘libelous posts’ of the three that he read on Facebook when he was in Isabela.
These three individuals are Engr. Daniel Peckley Jr., Atty. Errol Comafay Jr., and Sunshine Sabado Busaing. For Peckley and Comafay, this is their second time to be accused by Estrañero of cyber libel.
In the affidavit filed by Estrañero, he accused Peckley of posting numerous statements through his Facebook account and according to him, Peckley did this in his fervent desire to malign his person, character, and honor.
Said posts were brought to his attention by his friend Cabacungan whom in his affidavit mentioned, “I was at home browsing through the social networking site Facebook when I chanced upon the comments of an account with the name “Dan Peckley” in the public page “Kalinga” criticizing Mayor Estrañero.”
Cabacungan checked the timeline of Peckley and saw the alleged libelous posts.
There were 16 alleged libelous posts which include Peckley’s post about the online petition on the Change.org to call for investigation into the alleged overpriced thermal scanners and his Facebook shares on pages that touched issues on the alleged overpriced thermal scanners, food packs, and others.
Estrañero in his affidavit affirmed that if Peckley’s intention is to call out public corruption, he could have made effort to ascertain the truth.
Comafay, on the other hand, was accused by the City Mayor of cyber libel for causing the publication of the Affidavit-Complaint he filed before the Office of the Ombudsman and his interview with 98.5 iFM on Oplan Salacnib on Facebook.
Moreover, Estrañero stated that Comafay “posted malicious imputations of a vice, crime or defect in his now deleted/deactivated Facebook Account under his name”. The City Mayor also claimed that Comafay deactivated his FB account because he is aware that his posts are libelous and malicious.
Some grounds of the case are also taken from his interview with 98.5 iFM
Newly added to the group of individuals who are charged by the City Mayor with cyber libel is Busaing. Just like the two, Cabacungan saw her posts on her Facebook account and reported it to Estrañero.
There are 12 posts and shares made by Busaing which are alleged to be libelous. These posts include the change.org petition asking for signatories and other shared posts about the affidavit-complaint of Comafay and Vice Mayor Dao-as against Estranero, the allegation that he is not paying his taxes properly, alleged overpriced food packs, Oplan Salacnib’s open letters to the president, and a shared post of a screenshot of People’s Journal tabloid front page stating, “Tabuk Mayor Under Fire” in one of its headlines.
“While it is true that she is merely “sharing” the posts of Oplan Salacnib, she cannot disclaim her liability of committing the crime of cyber libel. She has shared almost all of the posts of the page Oplan Salacnib which are all skewed to make people believe that I have committed the crime which they accuse me of. It is clear that what she is trying to do is to publicly malign my good name and reputation,” the affidavit reads.
Meantime, in all the three separate affidavits, the City Mayor expressed that due to the malicious public imputation by the respondents, he suffered and continue to suffer anxiety, besmirched reputation, mental anguish, and sleepless nights. These, he said also damaged his career, reputation, and honor among the reader and the general public.
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