CEBU, Philippines — Cebuano film writer and entrepreneur Maria Victoria “Bambi” Beltran, who was accused of spreading false information about COVID-19, would file counter-charges against Mayor Edgardo Labella.
Beltran’s legal team is set to file criminal charges against Labella for supposedly violating the artist’s rights.
The team said Labella, a lawyer by profession, violated RA 7438 (Custodial Investigation Law), which protects the rights of the accused.
This was disclosed by lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, a member of Beltran’s legal team, in his interview with the ANC News yesterday.
Ligutan said Beltran's lawyer was not allowed to enter holding area of Police Regional Office-7 because of the presence of the mayor.
This, he added, was a violation of Beltran's rights, who was without legal representation for over 15 hours after her arrest.
Beltran’s rights were specifically violated when the accuser, Labella, was allowed to see Beltran without her lawyer present.
Another co-counsel, Benjamin Militar, was told to wait outside while Labella was speaking to Beltran in the police headquarters' holding area.
Ligutan said Labella told Beltran that he had nothing to do with the arrest.
“In front of Miss Beltran, the mayor denied having any hand on her arrest... Everyone in Cebu City knows that it was the mayor who ordered the arrest of Miss Beltran," said Ligutan.
Ligutan said Labella was "only telling half of the story and concealing the other half."
Ligutan said the mayor was being "hypocritical."
Moreover, Ligutan said each and every part of Beltran's post was based on the news she read on print and heard over radio.
"Miss Beltran is just reporting/restating/reposting what she read and heard on the news," he said
"It's so unfair for someone to rely on the news and post something on what she reads on the news and be prosecuted for such," he added.
Bail
Beltran was released around 2 p.m. yesterday after posting the required bail for her cases. She spent a night in detention at the PRO-7 headquarters.
She is facing three charges before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
The charges, which were filed by the Regional Intelligence Division (RID)-7 and the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU)-7, include violation of Article 154 of the Revised Penal Code (Unlawful Use of Means of Publication and Unlawful Utterances) in relation to Republic Act (RA) 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), violation of Section 9, Paragraph (b) of RA 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act), and violation of Section 6, Paragraph (f) of RA 11469 (Bayanihan to Heal as One Act).
Under the Section 6 of Bayanihan Act, the act of spreading false information on COVID-19 crisis on social media or other platforms with the clear intention “to promote chaos, panic, anarchy, fear, or confusion” is considered punishable by law.
Beltran paid P30,000 in bail for the first case (violation of Art. 154). The second and third cases, on the other hand, fall under Summary Procedure with no recommended bail.
Beltran, 58, was arrested by cops past 2 a.m. on Sunday in Barangay Kamputhaw after Mayor Edgardo Labella accused her of spreading fake news.
The arrest stemmed from Beltran’s post on Facebook that read: “9,000+ new cases (All from Zapatera) of Covid-19 in Cebu City in one day. We are now the epicenter in the whole Solar System.”
Cops: Arrest valid
A human rights lawyers’ group, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, Concerned Artist of the Philippines, and other civic groups had denounced Beltran’s arrest.
It claimed Beltran did not violate any law with her social media post, pointing out that satire is a form of speech often employed as means of criticism.
It also criticized the cops for arresting Beltran sans an arrest warrant.
But Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 director, said the arrest was valid.
"There are several ways to arrest a person.... we are talking about the warrantless arrest. There are several requirements if we want to conduct a warrantless arrest, one if he's committed a crime, is commiting,had committed," Ferro earlier said.
"For this instance,she had commited a crime of making a false information, fake news. Very obvious naman and she even admitted it that she have that kind of posting on the website," he added. KQD (FREEMAN)