Sunday, July 29, 2007 Ex-vice mayor faces libel trial
FORMER Sogod vice mayor Dean Dosado will be charged with libel for accusing Mayor Thaddeus Durano of pocketing large sums of the town’s P30-million loan for its water project.
But Dosado will only face one count of libel after the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the other three counts Durano filed, for lack of probable cause.
Bail for Dosado has been set at P10,000.
Dosado earlier said the high level of fecal coliform found in the town’s water is because officials, including Durano, pocketed a large sum of money for the Sogod waterworks project.
The former vice mayor allegedly issued another “malicious accusation” during a TV interview, where he challenged Durano to drink the town’s water and see if he doesn’t die as a result.
Then, Durano said, Dosado continued his attack in a Sun.Star Cebu interview where he called the project substandard and added that the officials pocketed money for the purifier, filter and the chlorinator.
The mayor, upon filing the complaint last January, said: “Dosado’s unfounded imputations have greatly prejudiced and damaged my good name and honor both as a person and as a public servant, for which he should be condemned to pay P1 million in order to teach him a lesson.”
Dosado ran for a Provincial Board seat for the fifth district during the elections last May 14 but lost. (KNT)
