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Friday, March 29, 2024

Ex-Speaker Alvarez downplays libel case

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Former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is not worried over the libel case filed against him by his former benefactor, Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. of Davao del Norte.

“I have not received the resolution [of the prosecutor elevating Floirendo’s complaint to the court] will attend to it as soon as we receive it,” Alvarez said.

Floirendo filed libel charges against Alvarez over the alleged defamatory statements that the former Speaker made against the Floirendo family.

Quezon City Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Dindo Venturanza recommended the filing of libel charges against Alvarez for allegedly making “defamatory and malicious imputations” against Floirendo when he branded the latter a landgrabber.

In a press conference on March 21 last year, Alvarez said: “Hindi Floirendo apelyido ko para maging landgrabber.”

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Alvarez earlier went on a rampage against Floirendo and his family that owns Tagum Development Corp. (Tadeco), that is operating a 5,000-hectare banana plantation.

Alvarez worked to nullify the Bureau of Corrections’s contract with Tadeco over the plantation. The plantation is inside the reservation of the Davao Penal Colony.

Alvarez’s statements against Floirendo and his family were carried in both print, TV and online media.

Alvarez’s words, “Hindi Floirendo apelyido ko para maging landgrabber” wrongfully imputes a crime, vice, or defect against Floireindo and his family and accused them as land grabbers, Venturanza said in the resolution.

Floirendo said Alvarez smeared not just his reputation but also that of his father, Antonio O. Floirendo Sr. and the rest of his family—and his father who has died can no longer personally address and confront the allegations made against him by Alvarez.

“Given the acrimonious relationship of the parties (Alvarez and Floirendo), the motives of (Alvarez) in making such statements and that he has no actual malice in when he made the defamatory statement is highly suspect,” the prosecutor added.

Venturanza also said that Alvarez’s statement can not be considered fair comments since these “had nothing to do with complainant, being (a) member of Congress, or in the discharge of his function as a member of Congress.”

On April 26, Assistant City Prosecutor Marizen Grutas denied to grant Alvarez’s plea for the dismissal of the libel complaint against him.

Echoing Venturanza, Grutas said the claim of Alvarez that “hindi Floirendo apelyido ko para maging land grabber” during a March 21, 2018 news conference was “malicious imputations.”

The prosecutor’s office prosecutor cited “facts which (Alvarez) has no capacity to know, and he and his family are land grabbers, is part of (Alvarez’s) deliberate effort to injure (Floireindo’s) reputation and character in the opinion of the people.”

“That an information for libel under Article 353 and 355 of the Revised Penal Code be filed against Pantaleon D. Alvarez,” the prosecutor’s office said.

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