BROADCASTER-columnist Bobby Nalzaro got his wish: a new prosecutor is handling the libel complaints against him.
Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor Rogelio Tagaan will handle the preliminary investigation of the cases filed last December by former mayor and congressman Tomas Osmeña.
The decision to transfer the libel cases was made by Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane after the media man sought the inhibition of Assistant City Prosecutors Gandhi Truya and Ma. Theresa Casiño to remove any “cloud of doubt” of bias.
Both prosecutors earlier refused to withdraw, saying they had no reason not to be impartial in the cases. They called Nalzaro’s move a result of “speculations, conjectures, and paranoia.”
However, their superior decided in favor of Nalzaro. Gubalane yesterday said he mailed his decision to all parties but declined to release copies to the media.
“It would be better if you secure copies from them,” he told reporters.
Nalzaro said he hasn’t received a copy yet but was happy with the outcome.
“I just followed the legal process. I hope that with an ‘outsider prosecutor’ designated to resolve these cases, it will level the playing field. I hope I can obtain a fair resolution,” said Nalzaro in a text message to CDN.
“Many in the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office are recommendees of the complainant (Osmeña) as he was very powerful and influential during his stint as a mayor and congressman,” he added.
Nalzaro earlier said he doubted Truya’s impartiality because of an old conflict with Truya’s father, a former Provincial Prosecutor who was suspended almost 20 years ago after Nalzaro criticized him in a case of extortion of money from a detainee’s mother.
The broadcaster also didn’t want Casiño on the case saying that the lady prosecutor had received from Osmeña P300,000 as financial assistance when she was shot and seriously injured by a disgruntled Canadian litigant in the the Palace of Justice two years ago.
Truya yesterday told CDN that he already turned over all case records last Monday to Acting Cebu City Prosecutor Ma. Luisa Ratilla who informed him of the office decision.
“I’m just doing my job. I have no personal interest in that case. I don’t mind who will handle it. There’s an order from my superior so I have to follow,” Truya said.
CDN tried to reach Prosecutor Casiño last night but she did not answer calls to her phone.
Last Dec. 2014, Osmeña filed two libel complaints against Nalzaro for purportedly maligning him in his column in the Oct. 25, 2014 issue of in Sun.Star Cebu.
In the column, Nalzaro wrote that Osmeña fabricated “some” of the charges he ealrier filed against Cebu City Treasurer Cuevas in an attempt to sabotage the administration of Mayor Michael Rama.
Cuevas is facing 38 counts of an administrative complaint filed by Osmena over alleged lapses in handling the city’s financial transactions based on findings of the 2012 and 2013 reports of the Commission on Audit.
“Super Bob” Nalzaro also anchors the nightly news program 24 Oras Central Visayas in GMA 7 and a morning radio program over dySS, where he is station manager. His columns appear in Sun.Star Cebu and Super Balita.