Councilors refute Malapitan’s charge
Five Caloocan City councilors, who were charged with cyber libel by Mayor Oscar Malapitan, said they were merely echoing the complaints they received from public school students of the city when they came out on social media.
Malapitan’s case was based on a Facebook Live post by Councilor Alex Mangasar questioning the Caloocan City government’s poor quality of tablets that were issued to students for their blended learning classes.
Apart from Managsar, those accused included Councilors Rose Mercado, Carding Bagus, Alou Nubla and PJ Malonzo.
In a press conference yesterday afternoon, the councilors said they merely wanted a response from the Mayor’s Office regarding complaints on the tablets the city bought.
However, they allegedly did not receive any answer on the matter, reason why they mentioned it in the video.
They pointed out they even sent the Commission on Audit a letter on the matter.
“We had doubts regarding what the mayor said. That is why we made that video to air the complaints of the parents and the students,” Mercado said.
The councilors likewise stressed they never said there was an anomaly in the purchase of the tablets, nor was there an overpricing.
They said everything they raised in the video is based on the records they have.
“We never said there was an anomaly. Everything we released in the video are based on the records given to us. We are not saying anything bad. We are not even saying that an overpricing happened,” Malonzo said.
The councilors said they merely compared the quality of the purchased tablets with that of a similar tablet model.
Although Mayor Malapitan has filed a cyber libel case against them, they will continue to wait for a response from the Mayor’s Office regarding the matter.
Meanwhile, Mayor Malapitan refuted the allegations of the councilors.