Watch your words, especially on Facebook.
A nurse from Talisay City was sued for almost P1.4 million in damages for allegedly insulting her female cousin in the social networking site.
In the online posts, she allegedly described her cousin as a married woman with loose morals.
For this, Rosanelmar Canton was also made the subject of a criminal complaint for libel and “intriguing against honor” before the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office.
Both parties are nurses living in Canton Beach, barangay Cansojong, Talisay City.
Canton’s cousin Shiela Cuyos Revelo denied the nasty allegations, which appeared in a series of Facebook posts in November 2011, and responded with legal action.
Revelo reproduced the remarks, which appeared in the Facebook wall of respondent “Ri-an Maen Canton,” who was conversing online with her uncle Godofredo Canton.
There were eight posts in Cebuano from Nov. 5–9, 2011, calling the uncle’s attention to a “favorite niece” who was allegedly engaged in hanky-panky.
“The acts of the defendant (Canton) caused injury to the plaintiff (Revelo) in a manner that is contrary to morals, good customs, or public policy,” said Revelo’s lawyer Dax Malony Montealegre in the complaint.
“All that defendant wrote, composed, printed and published about the plantiff is libelous in nature and should be punished.”
Libel is defined in the Revied Penal Code as “a public and malicious imputation of a crime or a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.”
Criminal penalties can reach P6,000 per offense with imprisonment from six months to six years, apart from civil damages for an undetermined amount.
Revelo is seeking P1 million in moral damages for causing her “mental anguish, physical pain and sufferings, sleepless nights, besmirched reputation, and public ridicule.”
She is also seeking P300,000 in exemplary damages, P50,000 as attorney’s fees, P10,000 for litigation expenses, and P2,500 for every court appearance of her lawyer.
Revelo said she was the person referred to as the “favorite niece” of Godofredo in the defamatory Facebook comments although her name did not appear. She said her uncle helped her pay for expenses of her Nursing Board exam, and that she is married to a seaman, which the posts also referred to.
Canton has a total of 613 Facebook friends who can access and read messages on her account and hundreds of extended friends who can read them as well, according to the complaint.
Revelo said two of her own friends read the remarks alleging that she had extramarital affairs.
In suing for damages, Revelo invoked Article 21 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, which states that “any person who willfully causes loss or injury to another in a manner that is contrary to morals, good customs or public policy shall compensate the latter for the damage.”
The dispute went through mediation with the barangay captain of Cansojong but ended up in court when the parties could not amicably settle the conflict. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter