Court orders urban poor leader to indemnify 4 people

The Mandaue Regional Trial Court recently ordered an urban poor leader and three others from Barangay Labogon, Mandaue City to pay P90,000 in damages and litigation expenses for maliciously filing a case against four residents of the barangay. The court’s ruling was the aftermath of charges and countercharges between Eglyrina Caballero and party, and their four Labogon neighbors.

It started when urban poor leader Caballero and her three companions, Alexton Marimat, Wendel Alvarez, and Jovenal Datanganan, filed for damages against four barangay residents, Florencio Estrera, Emiliano Lanticse, Clemente Estrera, and Marcelina Morpos.

In 1999, the four had filed theft charges against Caballero and her companions for allegedly cutting and stealing nipa plants worth P5,000 from their lot in Sitio Canumay on June 11, 1998.

A warrant of arrest was issued against Caballero and the three, who were eventually nabbed on June 12, 1999. The arrest was even reported in the local papers. The case, however, was dismissed.

This prompted Caballero and party to file counter-charges against their four accusers. They argued that the four knew from the start that the nipa palms they had cut were planted on a government lot allotted for the urban poor of the barangay. But the four residents said the filing of the theft case against Caballero and party was done in good faith.

Judge Agustin Vestil, in his ruling on April 9, had decided in favor of the four residents, who, he said, had only practised their rights to seek redress against the actions of Caballero and party. — Freeman News Service