Cato files cyber raps vs TRIBUNE

A consulate official has filed a P10-million defamation suit against DAILY TRIBUNE for allegedly falsely accusing him of coddling an immigration consultancy firm under investigation in Italy and the Philippines.

Elmer G. Cato, consul general of the Philippines to Milan, filed a complaint for 17 counts of cyber libel or violation of Republic Act 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, against officers, editors, and writers of the paper.

Cato appeared before Angeles City Chief Prosecutor Oliver Garcia on Monday afternoon to claim that DAILY TRIBUNE waged a disinformation campaign against him purportedly based on fabricated and hearsay statements by people it had interviewed for a series of stories on Alpha Assistenza SRL.

Headed by co-CEOs Krizelle Respicio and Frederick Dutaro, Alpha Assistenza was charged by hundreds of Filipinos, both in Italy and the Philippines, with defrauding them of at least 2,500 euros each (roughly P152,600) in exchange for visa processing assistance.

The paper said it welcomes Cato’s complaint as it stands by the “veracity and objectivity of our stories, as well as the public interest they have served in bringing to light charges of fraud raised by hundreds of Filipinos against Alpha Assistenza SRL.”

TRIBUNE will issue a further statement upon receipt of the complaint.

The complaint stemmed from a series of news reports and commentary published in both print and online editions of the Tribune and its sister publication Dyaryo Tirada that had the alleged victims accusing Cato of dereliction of duty and corruption for supposedly sitting on their complaints.

Among those interviewed by DAILY TRIBUNE cited by Cato were Vanessa Antonio, Enrique Catilo, and Apple Cabasis. They are among the more than 200 applicants in the Philippines who paid Alpha Assistenza more than P20 million for what they said were nonexistent jobs in Italy.

In his complaint, Cato said Antonio, Catilo, and Cabasis, who are also respondents in the cyber libel case, could not accuse the Consulate of sitting on their complaints because they could not have filed any because they were in the Philippines.

“The series of articles and commentary published by the Tribune beginning in September was part of a narrative that was all made up to depict Consul General Cato as a negligent, insensitive, incompetent, and corrupt diplomat who should be removed from his position because he is an embarrassment to the foreign service,” Cato’s counsel Jocelyn Martinez-Clemente said in a statement.

“The fact that 92 complaints of aggravated fraud have been filed against Alpha Assistenza before the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Milan is proof enough that the Consulate was not sleeping on the job,” Martinez-Clemente said.

Martinez-Clemente claimed that Cato was dragged into the controversy because of business rivalry among Filipino-owned agencies in Milan called patronatos and his announced intention to regulate these companies to put a stop to the exorbitant fees being charged for services rendered to Filipino clients.