Mayor files cyber libel vs publisher

TAGBILARAN — A Bohol town mayor filed three counts of cyber libel against the publisher of an online publication purportedly spreading malicious news against him.

In a report obtained by the Daily Tribune on Saturday, Dauis town mayor Marietta Sumaylo filed a P33.5 million cyber libel suit against Romulo Rowenlo Bayron, publisher of Bol-anon Chronicle before the Provincial Prosecutors’ Office of Bohol.

The mayor was allegedly fed up with the unsavory articles maligning her reputation online through the publication considered the local version of the demonym for the resident or people of Bohol province.

Moreover, Sumaylo tagged Bayron as the alleged author of “defamatory, fabricated, misleading” stories in the online publication.

The Bol-anon Chronicle is mainly distributed on social media and on a dedicated website. The Facebook account and the website are no longer accessible via the Internet as of yesterday morning.

Furthermore, Sumaylo said the articles that appeared on the Bol-anon Chronicle platform last 11 August, 18 August and 21 August caused her sleepless nights, loss of appetite, deep offense of honor, mental anguish, serious anxiety and “the shame and public humility heaped on my family.”

Prior to the filing of the case before the prosecutors’ office, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) conducted an investigation.

The NBI in Bohol recommended the filing of charges of cyber libel against Bayron.

ELMER RECUERDO Young crusader A boy joins his family in the Global Climate Strike rally in a public plaza in Guiuan, southernmost town of Samar where typhoon Yolanda made its first landfall in 2013.