Mangaoang raps Tulfo for libel

Former Cebu Customs district collector Lourdes Mangaoang yesterday filed four counts of libel against columnist Ramon Tulfo for allegedly maligning her reputation by saying that she has a relationship with Finance Secretary Margarito "Gary" Teves.

Mangaoang, who is now assigned as the district collector of the port of Iloilo City, went to the Cebu City prosecutor's office with lawyer Oliveros Kintanar to file the complaint. Kintanar claimed that they have enough evidence to prove the guilt of Tulfo.

The preliminary investigation of the complaint was assigned to assistant Cebu City prosecutor Patrick Osorio who required Tulfo to submit a counter-affidavit within 15 days.

Mangaoang said Tulfo published defamatory statements in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on March 23, March 30 and April 4, 2006 during her stint here in Cebu, among them the allegation that she refused to vacate her post despite an order from Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales "because of her alleged relationship with Secretary Teves."

She said Tulfo's repeated attacks against her was to cause damage and embarrassment as well as "a part of a vicious, extortion business of Tulfo utilizing the pernicious effect of maligning innocent people."

She even quoted a portion of Tulfo's column that read, "Psst, somebody at the Department of Finance is enamored of the pretty, diminutive collector. Collector Lourdes Mangaoang of the Cebu Port on her part invokes her connections with Secretary Teves for disobeying the order reassigning her to the Iloilo port. What's between Mangaoang and Teves by the way? Just asking."

She believes Tulfo wanted to destroy her reputation because she refused to give him monthly "payola."

Mangaoang recalled that there was a time when somebody who claimed to be a close friend of Tulfo asked her to meet with him in Manila because the columnist would like to help project a good image about the Cebu Customs office.

In her complaint, Mangaoang attached the affidavit of a certain Jimmy Salgado who was investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation and confessed that he was collecting money from the officials of the Bureau of Customs for Tulfo.

NBI director Nestor Mantaring even wrote a letter to Chief State prosecutor Jovencito Zuño recommending the filing of charges for violation of Article 293 (Robbery) against Tulfo and two of his brothers, Raffy and Erwin, as well as Jimmy Salgado.

In his affidavit executed before the NBI, Salgado claimed that Erwin and Raffy, were also collecting money from the Customs officials in exchange for not attacking them in their radio programs and newspaper columns.

The FREEMAN yesterday called up Philippine Daily Inquirer to get the side of Tulfo, but the office refused to give his contact number. - Rene U. Borromeo/BRP