Court wants Chavit Singson's 'trolls' nabbed

NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur — A court hearing cyber libel complaints in Abra and Ilocos provinces wants two alleged “trolls” of a well-known influential politician caught to answer a defamation complaint of a topnotch lady lawyer.

Judge Homer Jay Ragonjan of the Regional Trial Court branch 1 in Bangued, Abra ordered the arrest of Florence Ducusin and Rodmar Alejo, both residents of Narvacan town, Ilocos Sur for allegedly violating the country’s cybercrime law (RA 10175)  after they accused lawyer Estelita Cordero of corruption via their posts at social networking site Facebook.

Cordero, who placed 11th in the 1971 bar examinations after graduating at the University of the Philippines College of Law, fumed. 

On March 2019, the alleged trolls of Narvacan Mayor Luis "Chavit" Singson posted a photo of Cordero on Facebook account "Bileg Ti Narvacan" and captioned it as "Hall of shame", including her as "one of the corrupt officials in (the town)".

The duo, Cordero claimed, also accused her of employing a Narvacan local government-paid employee as her personal driver aside from other allegedly “degrading” remarks like “idiot” and among others like “tililing” insinuating she had brain damage.

Another post, Cordero claimed, about an incident with a security guard at a popular supermarket in Narvacan town also imputed that she was “bad”.

The lady lawyer claimed she was “attacked” by trolls to forward the candidacy of Singson in the May 2019 elections, she being a relative of former Mayor Edgardo Zaragoza whose son and daughter battled the Singsons in Narvacan and in the Ilocos Sur provincial races.

Mayor Singson, however, had remained mum.

Such posts over at Facebook,Cordero lamented, (is) destroying her “well-earned good reputation nurtured through long years in (legal) practice”, prompting her to lodge a complaint middle of last year.

The National Bureau of Investigation investigated the complaint, Cordero said, prompting the Ilocos Sur provincial prosecutor’s office to file the case that led to the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Ragonjan on January 7 against the trolls.

RA 10175 signed in 2012 penalizes cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel.

When found guilty, the trolls might be penalized under Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, specifically prision correctional or a minimum jail term of 6 months and one day to maximum of 6 years, 6 months and 1 day.

The trolls might also be suspended from public office, from the right to follow a profession or calling, and that of perpetual special disqualification from the right of suffrage, if the duration of said imprisonment shall exceed eighteen months.