Nalzaro insists his columns were factual

Bobby Nalzaro, with his lawyers in tow, swears under oath to the authenticity of his signature on his counter-affidavit to Provincial Prosecutor, Pepita Jane Petralba.
(CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza)

Media personality wants prosecutors handling the case filed by Tomas Osmeña yanked out.

“I wrote the article in good faith and based on existing facts.”

Thus said broadcaster and newspaper columnist Bobby Nalzaro in a counter-affidavit to the two libel suits filed against him by former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office yesterday.

Accompanied by five lawyers, Nalzaro went to the old Palace of Justice past 1 p.m. But instead of going to the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office, he had his counter-affidavit subscribed and sworn to before Cebu Provincial Prosecutor Pepita Jane Petralba.

BIAS

Early yesterday, Nalzaro in a pleading, requested Regional State Prosecutor (RSP) Fernando Gubalane to bar Cebu City Assistant Prosecutors Gandhi Truya and Maria Theresa Casiño from handling the libel suits filed against him.

He asked Gubalane to designate an “acting city prosecutor” from any prosecution office in Central Visayas to investigate the two cases.

Nalzaro cited a provision of Republic Act 10071 or the Prosecution Service Act of 2010 which mandates the regional state prosecutor “to designate a prosecutor from the province or city within the region as Acting Provincial or City Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute a case in instances where parties question the partiality or bias of a city or provincial prosecutor.”

Osmeña last December filed two libel complaints against Nalzaro for purportedly maligning him in a newspaper column published on Oct. 25 in Sun Star Cebu.

Factual

Osmeña claimed that Nalzaro accused him of “fabricating charges” against Cebu City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas in an attempt to sabotage the administration of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

The former mayor had earlier filed 38 counts in an administrative complaint against Cuevas before the Department of Finance over alleged lapses in handling financial transactions of Cebu City based on findings of the 2012 and 2013 audit reports of the Commission on Audit (COA).

In his counter-affidavit, Nalzaro said he never maligned nor destroyed the reputation of Osmeña in his newspaper column.

Nalzaro said he based his opinion and statements from the COA report which showed that some of the charges filed by Osmeña against Cuevas didn’t have basis.

Nalzaro claimed Truya holds a grudge against him as he had criticized his father, former provincial prosecutor Crispulo Truya, who allegedly accepted money from a detainee’s mother. The exposé resulted in the elder Truya’s suspension.

He also said Casiño was allegedly grateful to Osmeña who allegedly gave her P300,000 in financial assistance after she was shot by a Canadian litigant inside the Palace of Justice two years ago.

The two prosecutors earlier denied Nalzaro’s request, saying his claims are based on “speculations, conjectures and paranoia.”