The Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed the perjury case filed against exorcist priest Fr. Winston Cabading, who had been previously cleared of liability over his statements regarding the 1948 Marian apparition in Lipa City, Batangas.

Cabading faced perjury charges after citing the 1951 Papal Decree declaring the Lipa apparition “not of supernatural character or origin” in his counter-affidavit for a separate religious feelings case filed by former Sandiganbayan Justice Harriet Demetriou.

Demetriou alleged that Cabading failed to attach the decree to his affidavit.

The CA First Division ruled that the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 96 committed “grave abuse of discretion” by denying Cabading’s motion to quash the perjury information, noting that he had submitted a copy of the 1951 Decree to both prosecutors and the trial court.

The decision dated 26 January 2026, stated that Cabading’s counter-affidavit “has basis on the 1951 Decree, thereby negating the allegation in the subject information for perjury that he made a ‘willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood.’”

It added that there was no reason for Cabading to endure trial under the “insufficient subject information for perjury.”

The perjury charges stemmed from the dismissed case for offending religious feelings, which Demetriou filed over Cabading’s statements on a digital Catholic show about the authenticity of the Lipa apparition.

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 224 dismissed the offending religious feelings case in May 2024, a decision later affirmed by the CA in September 2025.

Demetriou claimed Cabading’s statements intentionally offended Marian devotees who believe in the apparition.