Lawyer Caesar Europa, legal counsel of former Davao City Information officer Jefry Tupas, wants the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 10 in Davao City to deny the Motion to Quash and proceed with arraignment and pre-trial for two counts of cyber libel against former vice-presidential candidate Walden Bello.
This developed following the filing of Motion to Quash by lawyers of Bello concerning the indictment against him by the City Prosecutor’s Office for his alleged malicious statement against Tupas who was allegedly involved in a drug raid in Mabini, Davao de Oro in November last year.
On a 15-page motion filed before the RTC Branch 10 in Davao City on October 24, 2022, Bello’s lawyers maintained that the facts in the criminal information did not constitute an offense because Tupas was a public officer and that the complained online post was a “commentary or criticisms” on her “official conduct.”
In his comment and/or opposition to the Motion to Quash Ad Cautelam filed before the RTC Branch 10, Europa commented that the motion should be summarily denied for being a Prohibited Motion.
Europa argued that “while the Motion to Quash in this case purports to be premised upon the ground of “fails to charge an offense” and “lack of jurisdiction” but a reading of the discussion shows that the grounds raised are not those found in Section 3 of Rule 117.
Europa also commented that while the rules do state that a Motion to Quash may be filed before arraignment, it is nonetheless submitted that if the defense truly intended for the matters raised to be considered by the court, then such matters could have been timely raised long before the scheduled arraignment since there was, in fact, the considerable period between the original schedule of the hearing and the rescheduled one.
He also commented that such defamatory statements cannot be considered fair commentary or criticism as they amount to outright accusations of the commission of very grave criminal offenses.
He also commented that there is absolutely no basis for this conclusion made by the defense in the motion. It is based on bare allegations that this case is part of a vendetta on the part of Vice president Sara Duterte.
As part of his final averments, Europa stated that the grounds and arguments raised are inapplicable to the cases at the bar as there is absolutely no basis to argue that the defamatory statements subject of this case are protected speech and, similarly, the claim that the accused herein was subjected to persecution is founded on thin air.
He commented that the instant case should not be allowed to be delayed any further and the scheduled arraignment and pre-trial of the case should already proceed.
Meanwhile, the camp of Bello also shared an update with regard to their motion. According to lawyer Danny Balucos, the court gave them 10 days to reply to the attached Comment to the Motion To Quash. The arraignment and pre-trial were canceled and reset to January 26, 2023.
“To follow are copies of the Statement of Support of the European Parliament, and the formal Entry of Appearance of Arvin Dexter M. Lopoz as collaborating counsel for the defense,” Balucos said.
