Two meted imprisonment for grave oral defamation

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court sentenced two women to an imprisonment of one year and two months for calling a woman “a daughter of a prostitute and a slut.”

RTC Branch 14 Judge Rafael Yrastorza found Levy dela Cerna and Cecilia Bacaltos guilty for calling Vilma Tan a daughter of a prostitute and a whore last November 7 at Pastring Compound in Tabunok, Talisay City.

Dela Cerna and Bacaltos allegedly went to the house of Tan and took turns in uttering the defamatory words: “Uy, anak ng p**a, b*ga*n, b*r*k*t, gawas dinha ari ta sa basketbolan kay panitan tika.”

A 13-year-old girl was with dela Cerna and Bacaltos at that time but the court dismissed the case against the minor and ordered her and her mother to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development on whatever program the minor will have to undertake.

Tan, in her testimony, said that she had just transferred to the place. When she was about to go out of her house to buy laundry soap, a woman named Elizabeth Canesa hurled a pail at her which hit her head and the bridge of her nose. When her husband was treating her wounds, dela Cerna began shouting outside of her house with the defamatory words.

Dela Cerna, on the other hand, said that her elder sister, Canesa, had a fight with Tan. She said that they even signed a petition along with her neighbors against the complainant because she “does not have a good relationship with her neighbors.” She also admitted that she challenged the complainant to go to the basketball court to fight.

Because of this, the court believes that both of the accused uttered the defamatory words that caused the disrespect, dishonor and discredit to the complainant.

“By calling and referring to complainant as daughter of a prostitute, a whore and other defamatory words, in the presence of a person or public, the same constituted a public and malicious imputation of a defect and the same need not be true as the definition states that such imputation may either be real or imaginary. The same words hurled in public surely caused dishonor, discredit, private complainant and her husband as the latter was very much present when the said words were hurled upon his wife,” the decision read. — Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV  (THE FREEMAN)