Blogger sues dancing boy's parents for perjury

MANILA, Philippines -  A blogger filed perjury charges before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office against the parents of a six-year-old boy who was made to gyrate like a macho dancer in a March 12 episode of the television show “Willing Willie.”

In his counter-affidavit filed with the office of Assistant City Prosecutor Raymund Oliver Almonte, Froilan Grate said Joe and Diana Suan “committed perjury when they knowingly made under oath a false declaration as to who first posted the allegedly offending material – the boy’s video supposedly spliced and edited for maximum effect – on social networking sites.”

Grate said Suan and an uncle of the boy, Argie Estrada, were the ones who first posted on YouTube and Facebook the very same video that Joe now claims to be libelous.

Though Suan and Estrada eventually deleted their postings, Grate said they did not know that despite their having deleted the electronic files in question from their respective profile pages, they left electronic footprints they could not erase. He said he has proof, such as a screen capture of the post.

Grate clarified that he just created a Facebook fan page to highlight, assail and bring to the attention of responsible authorities the exploitation of minors on television.

“There is nothing in the fan page where I or any of my fellow advocates maligned the boy; never did I or any of my fellow advocates claim that the complainants were the ones who abused him. If at all we merely expressed our disappointment that the boy’s parents allowed him to be subjected by the television show to such indignities,” he said.

Apart from Grate, the Suans also filed libel charges against child psychologist Ma. Lourdes Carandang and another blogger, John Silva, for making their son a “poster boy” of child abuse on YouTube.

Carandang said yesterday she filed her counter-affidavit “because I was sued for libel and child abuse. I was asked my professional opinion and I gave it. As a clinical child psychologist and national social scientist, it is my duty to give my opinion on these matters, and I stand by my opinion.”

Non-government organizations such as Church Cafe and Women’s Crisis Center, The Center for Family Ministries, and MLAC Institute for Children and Families trooped to the Quezon City Hall of Justice yesterday morning to accompany Carandang and Grate in the filing of their counter-affidavits.