Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor on Friday said he has no plans to take action against the cyber libel case filed against him by Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte.
"Wala akong plano. Hindi ko pa nakikita 'yung kasong finile niya pero 'yung sasabihin na bubuo ako ng abogado, hindi. Hindi ko planong gawin 'yan," he told DZRH in an interview.
(I don’t have any plans. I have not seen the case she filed. But if they think I’ll form a legal team, I won’t. I have no plans on doing that.)
According to Defensor, who is running against Belmonte as Quezon City mayor, his philosophy as a public official is fairness.
"Kapag public official ka, fair game ka, patas ka sa lahat. Never akong nag-file ng kaso. Never ako nag-file ng kaso sa social media," he added.
(When you are a public official, you are a fair game, you should be fair to everyone. I have never filed a case, I have never filed a case on social media.)
His statement came after Belmonte filed a cyber libel case against him, where she accused Defensor of publishing "libelous, malicious, false, and fraudulent" social media posts against her.
Among the said posts include Defensor accusing Belmonte of organizing a unit to remove Defensor's campaign materials, where the representative condemned the Quezon City mayor as "divisive, slanderous, sickening, and clinging tightly to power."
He also claimed in a separate post that a Quezon City hall employee wanted to file a case against Belmonte for "overpriced" pandemic aid.
Defensor stood by these accusations in the interview, where he said that he heard about the unit that removed his campaign materials and even posted them about it.
"'Yung nagbaklas sila mismo yung nag-post na binabaklas nila," he explained.
(Those who took them down said it themselves that they removed them.)
On the pandemic aid issue, the lawmaker said that a city hall employee saw that the goods purchased by the local government were double the price than when it was at the stores.
Instead of focusing on filing a cyber libel case, Defensor told Belmonte to focus on her plunder case.
"Mas malaking kaso 'yung plunder, at 'yung pagkakawala ng pondo sa gitna ng pandemya kaysa diyan sa sinasabi niyang libel," he said.
(Plunder and the missing funds in the middle of the pandemic are bigger cases than what she said are libel.)
He further called Belmonte onion-skinned for filing a libel case instead of just responding to the issue, stressing that it was part of being a public official.
"Ngayon sakin naman, masyado namang balat-sibuyas yung ating mayora, na yan naman ang daling sagutin," he said.
(For me, I think the mayor is too onion-skinned. Those are easy to answer.)
"Kahit ako ang dali naman din akong batikusin at may magsalita laban sakin tungkol sa bagay na yan … parte yan ng laban, parte 'yan ng pagiging opisyal namin," he added.
(Even I am easy to criticize and talked about when it comes to those issues … that are part of the fight, that is part of being an official.)
Belmonte said in her complaint that they already knew that Defensor would "engage in the kind of behavior he is now displaying" when he announced his decision to run for mayor.
She added that when she saw the posts herself, they were no longer acceptable, and "legal lines were crossed."
Belmonte is running for another term as Quezon City mayor in the 2022 elections, where she will be facing Defensor.
