Ex-Bayan Muna solon eyes libel suit vs red-tagging accuser
Jeffrey Celiz, who claims to be a former member of the New People’s Army (NPA), appears before a Senate red-tagging hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo by JOSEPH VIDAL / Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — Former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño on Thursday revealed that he is planning to file a libel complaint against individuals linking him to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
“If they have proof, for example, that I recruited for the NPA [New People’s Army], then name sino ba yung nirecruit ko sa NPA? If they have proof that I am a member of the CPP, if they can show people that I was meeting as a member of the CPP that I gave instruction to the NPA, then come out with it,” the former congressman told ABS-CBN News Channel.
“But to say that I am a prominent activist and a member of CEGP [College Editors Guild of the Philippines], 29 years ago, therefore, I am a communist and I am still a communist etcetera, I think that is not only unfair, that is bordering on the criminal and they can be liable for libel actually,” Casiño added.
“Some lawyers I have talked to are saying that all elements of libel are already there so that is one of the options that I am looking at.”
In a Senate red-tagging investigation on Wednesday, Jeffrey Celiz, who claimed he was a former communist rebel, tagged Casiño as being a member of the CPP during the time that the former congressman was the head of CEGP.
“I was the regional chairman [of the CEGP] — though I know him also to be part of the CPP,” Celiz said.
Casiño already denied Celiz’s allegations, saying the alleged former rebel has no proof to back up his claims.
“I was the national president of the CEGP from 1991-1994 when Celiz was active in our Iloilo chapter. My God, that was 29 years ago during our student days! I cannot see how on this basis he can drag my name into his web of lies,” Casiño said.
