THE camp of former Vice Presidential candidate Walden Bello has asked the Supreme Court for the transfer of the handling of the cyber libel case filed by former Davao City Information Officer Jefry Tupas from the Davao City Prosecutor's Office (CPO) to a more "neutral court."
Lawyer Luke Espiritu, Bello’s legal counsel, told members of the media in a press conference in Davao City on Thursday afternoon, August 18, that they are exhausting all legal remedies to dismiss the charges filed against Bello, whom they believe is being attacked by means of a cyber libel case.
"We all know that Davao is politically controlled by the Duterte clan. That is why we are asking the Supreme Court to transfer the venue to a more neutral court. Perhaps in NCR [National Capital Region]," Espiritu said.
Among the factors as to why having the trial in the city could not be considered a "neutral venue", he said, is due to the "persona non grata" resolution passed by the 19th Davao City Council.
The legal team recently filed a petition for view to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on July 29.
The court granted their motion for suspension of the proceeding in court for 60 days. During this period, Remulla should decide on the review of the complaint.
Bello was arrested on Monday, August 8, 2022, over cyber libel charges filed by Tupas, a former aide of then Davao City Mayor and current Vice President Sara Duterte.
CPO indicted the ex-vice presidential candidate for two counts of libel in June this year following the case filed by Tupas in March, also this year.
The activist accused Tupas of involvement in illegal drugs and posted it on his social media account. This came after Tupas attended a birthday party in which police found P1.5 million worth of illegal drugs.
Tupas had left the party before the police came to conduct a raid where 17 people were arrested. Tupas resigned and, at the same time, was fired by Duterte.
Bello earlier labeled Tupas’ cyber libel complaint as “politically motivated", and that Duterte had involvement in the latter's action.
He previously criticized the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte for skipping the political debates organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 2022 elections.
Duterte denied Bello's accusation, and urged her former fellow candidate to stop "playing the victim of an imaginary case of political persecution."
Espiritu, on the other hand, said the cyber libel law is very dangerous legislation, which politicians could weaponize against their critics.
"This is alarming, and I don't understand why we should not be alarmed by this trend towards weaponizing our libel laws against critics of those people in power," he said. RGL