Vendor gets libel for ‘malicious’ FB posts
A market vendor is facing trial for allegedly maligning Inayawan Barangay Captain Rustico Ignacio and his market administrator Loida Elman.
Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Alex Gabud found sufficient basis to recommend the filing of a libel case in court against Mary Danielle Villapante who used her Facebook account for her “malicious” posts.
“Undoubtedly, the subject Facebook posts are defamatory and the same are malicious as it is presumed under Article 354 of the Revised Penal Code,” Gabud wrote on the case’s information sheet.
Ignacio and Elman filed the libel complaint against Villapante in February and attached screen shots of her FB post made from October 2 to November 15, 2016 where she accused the two village officials of accepting bribe from other market vendors to avoid from being kicked out of their market stalls.
Villapante posted on FB that Elman started to pick on her after she failed to pay P1,000 rental of the stall that she occupies at the barangay-run market in Inayawan.
Elman, for her part, told the prosecutor that she used to be friends with Villapante. But the latter was irked after she asked her to refrain from selling outside of her designated vending area.
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