Former Davao City chief information officer Jeffrey Tupas on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the petition filed by former solon and activist Walden Bello seeking to decriminalize libel and enjoined his prosecution for the cyber libel case filed by the former lawmaker.

In a 10-page comment, Tupas — through his legal counsel — denied Bello’s claim of political persecution, citing Tupas’ admission that he currently heads the public affairs team of the Office of the Vice President.

“This case, no matter how the petitioner may imagine it to be, is not a case of political persecution. Neither is it a case where there was any suppression of dissent or attempt to do so,” Tupas said.

To recall, Bello — in his petition filed last December 2023 — asked the SC to declare unconstitutional Articles 353 to 355 of the Revised Penal Code as well as Section 4 (c) of Republic Act 10175 on Cyberlibel for being violative of Section 4, Article III of the Bill of Rights and permanently stopped the Regional Trial Court of Davao City from proceeding with the trial of the two counts of cyberlibel case filed by Tupas.

Tupas was the former city information officer of then mayor and now Vice President Sara Duterte.

The case stemmed from Bello’s Facebook post during the 2022 campaign castigating Duterte for snubbing the debates and mentioning there that Tupas was “snorting P1.5 million worth of drugs on 6 November 2021.”

Tupas was reportedly at a beach party in Davao de Oro that was raided and caught with P1.5 million worth of drugs but claimed that he had already left the party when it was raided.

The former Davao information chief said the petitioner has repeatedly painted himself to be the victim in the case.

“He draws the image of himself as a David to Sara Duterte’s Goliath in order to claim persecution,” Tupas said, adding that the Vice President has absolutely nothing to do with this case.