Nalzaro’s case can’t proceed just yet

CEBU, Philippines- Former Cebu City congressman and mayor Tomas Osmeña is not open to settlement with Pablito “Bobby” Nalzaro in the libel case he filed against the tri-media personality.

“Not open to settlement,” said Osmeña’s lawyer, Kirk Bryan Repollo, during Nalzaro’s scheduled arraignment yesterday.

The court, however, moved the arraignment to September 7 owing to several motions Nalzaro has filed.

Nalzaro through lawyer Joan Baron has questioned the decision of the prosecutor to elevate the case to court and asked that it be quashed for being defective.

Baron contended the case only bears the signature of acting city prosecutor Jesus Rodrigo Taga-an, and contended further it should have been approved by the Regional State Prosecutor.

 She said they asked the court to suspend the arraignment because the Department of Justice is yet to rule on their petition for review.  Repollo, for his part, said the defense is only delaying the proceedings. He said the court can proceed with the arraignment even without the DOJ resolution.      Nalzaro was charged for libel for allegedly maligning Osmeña in the latter’s newspaper column.

 Osmeña alleged Nalzaro degraded his reputation when the latter alleged in his column that he filed fabricated cases against officer-in-charge (OIC) Cebu City treasurer Diwa Cuevas.

 “Tomas is moving to sabotage Mike’s administration. Unfortunately, because of his obsession to get back at Mike, many innocent people got caught in the political crossfire. An example is OIC city treasurer Diwa Cuevas. Tomas filed several administrative cases against her. Some of those cases were based on fabricated charges,” the article reads.

 Osmeña said the article “unjustly imputes” that he fabricated charges against Cuevas. He added the administrative charges he filed against Cuevas were based on the 2012 and 2013 audit reports of the Commission on Audit.

 Nalzaro denied the accusations filed against him, claiming he has no malice in the used of word “fabricated” in his column.  (FREEMAN)