OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — Actress Aiko Melendez filed a cyberlibel case against Zambales Vice Gov. Angel Magsaysay-Cheng before the provincial prosecutor’s office here yesterday.
Melendez, 45, a former councilor of Quezon City, filed the complaint after Cheng posted a video on Facebook wherein she referred to the actress as the mistress of Subic Mayor Jay Khonghun and tagged her in the illegal drug trade.
Khonghun, who is Melendez’s boyfriend, is separated from his wife.
He is running against Cheng in the May 13 elections.
“The video and post submitted as evidence shows a malicious imputation on my client’s character,” Melendez’s lawyer Carl Bonifacio Aletajan told The STAR. “She is a mother of two, a woman and her feelings were hurt.”
“The... defamatory imputations are false and inherently malicious because it caused dishonor, defamation, embarrassment and public humiliation to complainant. It indubitably constitutes assassination of character and subject to criminal prosecution,” the complaint read.
Aletajan said they would pursue the case until the guilty party is punished.