{"id":119919,"date":"2017-09-27T22:46:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T02:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=119919"},"modified":"2017-09-27T22:46:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T02:46:16","slug":"sotto-to-file-cyber-libel-case-vs-writers-of-silly-stupid-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/27\/sotto-to-file-cyber-libel-case-vs-writers-of-silly-stupid-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Sotto to file cyber libel case vs writers of \u2018silly, stupid\u2019 blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>
A visibly irked Senator Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said he would be filing a cyber libel case versus the writers of a blog which published an article that called him and six other senators as \u201cMalaca\u00f1ang dogs.\u201d (Photo by Public Relation and Information Bureau, Public domain)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>MANILA\u00a0— A visibly irked Senator Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said he would be filing a cyber libel case versus the writers of a blog which published an article that called him and six other senators as \u201cMalaca\u00f1ang dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blog “Silent No More PH” published an article titled \u201cMalacanang Dogs in the Senate: Pimentel, Sotto, Gordon, Villar, Zubiri, Honasan, Pacquiao\u201d which criticized the seven senators mentioned for not signing a resolution urging the government to end the killings of minors.<\/p>\n

Sotto, who said the resolution never reached his office, described the blog post as \u201cnothing but pure malice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen the shadow of this resolution. Hindi dumaan sa opisina ko yan pagkatapos \u2018I did not sign\u2019?<\/em>\u00a0(It never passed through my office, then they say I did not sign?)\u201d Sotto said in a privilege speech.<\/p>\n

The same blog post also criticized each of the seven senators and resulted to name-calling.
\nSotto said he was called a \u201crapist, plagiarist, and bigot who called all single mothers as good for nothing but accidental whores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrabe \u2018to<\/em>\u00a0(This is too much),\u201d Sotto said. \u201cGinagamit itong resolution para siraan kami<\/em>\u00a0(This resolution is being used to destroy us).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will request to direct the Senate Secretariat to investigate who\u2019s behind prostituting this resolution and use the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) Cybercrime Division because I will be very kind. I will just file a cyber libel case against these people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sotto also described the blog post as a \u201cstupid, silly news item.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would have signed it<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senator Richard Gordon, Cynthia Villar, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Manny Pacquiao also made manifestations to explain that the same resolution never reached them.<\/p>\n

Like Sotto, Pimentel said that he never saw the resolution himself and was against not just the killing of minors but of Filipinos as well as foreigners.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao said that he also condemned the killings, especially of children, and would have signed the resolution if he had the opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n

Gordon described the blog as \u201ccowardly\u201d and also said that he would have signed it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Zubiri said that having a resolution passed around without their knowledge felt like being \u201cstabbed in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he and the six other senators who did not sign the resolution have filed their own resolution condemning the killings.<\/p>\n

Villar also explained that she and the other six senators \u201cdid not refuse to sign\u201d but \u201cwere not asked to sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody from media told me two senators are going to destroy us. It\u2019s only when I saw that blog when I started thinking \u2018maybe this is the beginning.\u2019\u201d Villar said.<\/p>\n

She later revealed that the two senators she was referring to were Senators Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Risa Hontiveros.<\/p>\n

No bad intentions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senator Francis Pangilinan, who drafted the resolution and passed it for 15 other senators to sign, took the stand to explain that he had no intention to place other senators in a bad light and only decided to file the resolution since it already had enough signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf other senators felt that there was an attempt not to include them that is not the case. We did not intentionally exclude anyone. It\u2019s just that at that point, I had to leave early. Considering we had several session days to go, there are, we decided let\u2019s go ahead and file it,\u201d Pangilinan said.<\/p>\n

Pangilinan also apologized if any of the seven senators felt \u201csingled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also like to apologize if some (of) our colleagues felt that I should have taken the extra mile and I failed to do so. I have no control over what social media will decide to upload. We have no role whatsoever in the uploading of unacceptable material,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hontiveros, for her part, denied that she and Aquino are plotting against any of their colleagues.
\n\u201cI categorically deny that and appreciate what Senator Cynthia said na hindi siya naniwala (that she didn\u2019t believe it). It is totally untrue. It is not the start of anything at all,\u201d Hontiveros said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung dami ng pirma<\/em>\u00a0(the number of signatures) indicates how many are supportive, but those who do not sign it doesn\u2019t matter because you only need one person to file it,\u201d Aquino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not indicative of whether the senators who did not sign are supportive or not,\u201d he added.
\nAquino said that all senators have been victims of bashing and fake news and shared the outrage of senators who did not sign the resolution.<\/p>\n

He expressed hope that all senators come together to support moves to investigate extrajudicial killings more thoroughly.<\/p>\n

Sotto\u2019s privilege speech was initially referred to the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs but after the motion of Senators Grace Poe and Antonio Trillanes, he rephrased his motion to refer it to the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media.<\/p>\n

Senate Resolution 516 is a \u201cresolution urging government to undertake the necessary steps to stop the spate of killings, especially our children and directing the appropriate Senate Committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine the institutional reasons, if any that give to such killings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 16 senators that signed the resolution were six minority Senators including Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Antonio Trillanes IV.<\/p>\n

It was also signed by 10 majority senators: Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Grace Poe and Joel Villanueva.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— A visibly irked Senator Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said he would be filing a cyber libel case versus …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":97248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[25080,25079,16192,25081,25082],"class_list":["post-119919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-blog","tag-malacanang-dogs","tag-senator-vicente-sotto-iii","tag-silly","tag-stupid","mauthors-nina-angela-venus","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}