MANDAUE City Treasurer’s Office head Regal Oliva is set to withdraw the charges that her camp filed against netizen Roch Dungog after the latter visited her office and issued a public apology on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Oliva said Thursday, August 3, that they will file an affidavit of desistance, a written statement stating that they are no longer interested in pursuing a complaint. The City Legal Office will be the one to submit it to the city prosecutor’s office, she added.
Oliva said Dungog came to her office to ask for an apology and posted his public apology on Facebook on the same day.
She said she also educated Dungog on the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance for Dungog’s awareness.
“As we always say that ignorance of the law excuses no one, but then again, sometimes you have to repeat interposing and injecting the law in the minds of our constituents so that they would truly understand the spirit of why we are doing it and we have such laws in our locality. I am happy with the progress of the whole situation,” said Oliva.
Dungog, in his apology, admitted his being irresponsible and having lack of self-awareness regarding his post on social media. He urged the public to give more love and understanding to the LGBTQ+ community.
“I would like to apologize for my irresponsibility and lack of self-awareness of me for posting such a thing. Even though it is a question out of ignorance, it did hurt a lot of people, especially members of the LGBTQ community and in Mandaue City,” he said in a video.
To recall, Dungog posted a photo of the pride flags with the caption: “Ga bayot2 naman lge nig flag ang Mandaue (Why Mandaue’s flag is so gay)?” last June 15.
The post was deleted by Dungog, but it was a screenshot of the post that went viral online. Dungog’s post received numerous negative comments from the LGBTQ+ community, including Oliva.
Oliva then filed cases against Dungog for violating Republic Act 11313 (the Safe Spaces Act) and the city’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance before the Mandaue City Prosecutor’s Office on July 11.
The city treasurer said the word “bayot-bayot” used in the post seemed more of a degrading remark than just a question, as it seemed to presuppose something negative.
Dungog, through a chat message sent to the media, then explained that his post was not intended to be offensive, adding that it was unfortunate that some people chose to spread hate.