The Pasay City Regional Trial Court has discovered blogger Edward Angelo “Cocoy” Dayao responsible of cyber libel over his 2017 submit towards former Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
In a choice, the Pasay RTC Branch 111 discovered Dayao responsible of violating Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and sentenced him to a minimal of two years and 5 months and a most of 4 years and 5 months in jail.
“[T]he subject article entitled ‘Malacanang dogs in the Senate’ in the web page https://www.silentnomoreph.com branding the private complainant, a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines, as ‘Tito Sotto — The rapist, plagiarist, and bigot who called all single mothers as good for’ clearly ascribes to the private complainant the commission of a crime and the possession of a vice or defect which tends to dishonor or discredit or put him in contempt,” the ruling said.
“This court finds that the prosecution sufficiently established that the accused is the publisher of the subject article. That such a defamatory article was published is beyond dispute,” it added.
The courtroom’s resolution stemmed from the grievance filed by the previous lawmaker after Dayao’s “Silent No More PH” weblog submit recognized Sotto in addition to Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Manny Pacquiao, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Cynthia Villar, and Richard Gordon as “Malacañang lapdogs” for not signing a Senate decision condemning the killing of minors within the Duterte administration’s bloody crackdown on unlawful medicine, which is now being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“In this case, malice is thus presumed from the imputation branding the private complainant as ‘the rapist, plagiarist, and bigot who called all single mothers as good for’. As such, the element of malice is also indubitably presumed,” the courtroom stated.
Dayao pleaded not responsible in the course of the arraignment.
In a press release, Sotto stated Dayao’s conviction ought to function a stern warning.
“I welcome the court decision. May this be a reminder to all of us that we should be more responsible for whatever we publish online,” Sotto stated. — VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
