Tom Osmeña seeks return of libel case to Cebu city fiscal

FORMER Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña requested Regional State Prosecutor (RSP) Fernando Gubalane to remand the libel complaints he filed against broadcaster-journalist Bobby Nalzaro to the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office.

In his pleading, Osmeña said Gubalane should not be influenced by Nalzaro who earlier sought the regional state prosecutor’s intervention after Cebu City Asst.  Prosecutors Gandhi Truya and Ma. Theresa Casiño refused to inhibit from handling  the two libel complaints assigned to them.

“The respondent’s trial by publicity should not sway the administration of justice as the RSP has, unfortunately, been swayed,” said Osmeña’s lawyer Patrick Lucido.

Gubalane earlier  directed Prosecutor Rogelio Tagaan of Lapu-Lapu City to handle the preliminary investigation of the cases after  taking them off the hands of  two Cebu City prosecutors whom Nalzaro requested to inhibit.

Osmeña wasn’t happy.

“If the respondent were to be allowed to get away and be rewarded with publicity arguing his case against maligning the prosecutors, everyone will follow it, particularly those working in the media,” he said.

Old conflict

“We might as well cast away the cherished institutions of justice and declare that the media is greater than the justice system,” the former mayor added.

Nalzaro earlier requested Truya and Casiño to let go of the cases to remove any “cloud of doubt” or suspicion of bias.

Last Dec. 2014, Osmeña filed two libel complaints against Nalzaro for purportedly maligning him in his newspaper column published on Oct. 25, 2014 in Sun.Star Cebu.

Osmeña claimed that  Nalzaro  accused him of fabricating charges against Cebu City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas.

The former mayor 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).