Asturias official sues woman for defamation

CEBU, Philippines - Asturias Vice Mayor Joel Dumdum has filed a criminal complaint for grave oral defamation against a woman who accused him of having a tendency to kill by hiring people to go after her and her family.

Dumdum filed the complaint last Friday before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against Joanabella Moscoso, resident of barangay Buanoy, Balamban.

Dumdum said that Moscoso imputed to him as a potential criminal who is willing to kill any one. Such malicious imputation was allegedly made sometime in the last week of June in front of the public when Moscoso approached Dumdum’s employee in his private company based in Balamban and said that his employer has the tendency to kill a person.

Dumdum’s employee, Allan Chester Sayson, asked what had happened and Moscoso told him that a certain Pablito Napoles went to their place looking for her house.

Napoles, a former employee of Dumdum, together with an unidentified person also went to Moscoso’s house at night looking for the latter’s husband but they did not come out of the house for fear.

According to Dumdum, Sayson told him what Moscoso had said against him prompting him to have the incident recorded in the blotter at the police station on June 30. On that same day, Moscoso sent him a text message admitting what she had said and asked for an apology.

However, Dumdum said he felt that his name has been “tarnished by the malicious and unfounded imputations made by Moscoso” in which he should be properly compensated.

Dumdum is demanding P100,000 in moral damages and another P50,000 for exemplary damages. He also demanded the reimbursement of the P20,000 he paid for the lawyer’s acceptance fee and the P2,000 per appearance of his counsel during the hearing of the case. — Fred P. Languido/MEEV   (THE FREEMAN)