Court finds Tigbauan mayor guilty of grave oral defamation raps
Tigbauan Mayor Myrna Montealegre-Torres was found guilty of Grave Oral Defamation over a case filed back in April 2001. The conviction further got the lady mayor "an indeterminate prison sentence" ranging from three months of arresto mayor as minimum to one year and one day of prision correccional as maximum.
And it does not stop there.
For disregarding "the respect due to the age of the complainant who was nearly seventy years old on the date of the incident, a churchgoer and the place of the incident is public market with the presence of many persons some of them were public officials," Judge Ernesto Mediodia, Presiding Judge of the 15th Municipal Circuit Trial Court ordered accessory penalties.
As such, Mayor Torres will pay the elderly complainant Socorro Traviña of P50,000 in moral damages, attorney's fees of P30,000 and P1,500 for every hearing in the over five years that the case was heard.
In a 17-paged Decision, Judge Mediodia averred that evidence presented for and against the lady mayor had elements "that qualify the oral defamation to the grave offense are extents."
"First, the accused who happens to be the Mayor of Tigbauan, Iloilo has an axe to grind against the complainant for their relationship became estranged when the latter's daughter, Bernardita Traviña Taasan run for Mayor under different party opposing the candidacy of the accused for the said position and even suspected and confronted her about the malicious letter concerning the accused and her husband Jaime Torres who also ran for Congressman being distributed several days before the 2001 elections," excerpts of the Decision went. "Secondly, it is unthinkable and contrary to human nature on the part of the complainant who is very old with limited income and churchgoer to lodge the offense charged against the complainant without compelling reason considering the power, influence and wealth of the accused and the subject incident was even repeated to police authority and entered in the police blotter."
Torres marks her last term as Tigbauan Mayor. Reports disclosed of plans for her son to "take-over" with the lady mayor said to file her candidacy as vice mayor.
Her conviction came amidst unanswered and unresolved graft raps hurled against her administration including adverse findings made by government auditors in hundreds of thousands in municipal funds believed to have been illegally disbursed.
One of the graft complaints was filed by top Tigbauan officials before the Iloilo People's Graftwatch of Iloilo, the anti-graft body responsible for the case that got Governor Niel Tupas, Board Members Domingo Oso Jr. and Cecilia Capadosa guilty of dishonesty and ordered dismissed from office.