3 Dagupan councilors indicted for causing a stir during session

The Dagupan City Prosecutor’s office indicts three councilors who were caught on video repeatedly hurling insults and loudly cursing during a city council regular session. In a resolution, the prosecutor said there were sufficient grounds to charge the three councilors with disturbance of proceedings, grave coercion, and grave oral defamation. Photo from dagupan.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines — The Dagupan City Prosecutor’s office has indicted three councilors who were caught on video repeatedly hurling insults and loudly cursing during a city council session.

In an 11-page resolution, Acting City Prosecutor Maychelle Ablog-Sergio said there were sufficient grounds to charge councilors Redford Christian Erfe-Mejia, Alipio Serafin Fernandez, and Victoria Czarinna Lim-Acosta with disturbance of proceedings, grave coercion, and grave oral defamation.

The three were video-recorded while verbally berating the Dagupan City Vice Mayor Dean Bryan Kua, who presided over the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on October 10, 2023. Erfe-Mejia was even seen snatching microphones away from officials attempting to speak and venting his ire at various attendees of the session. He also allegedly demanded that the hall’s doors be locked so that no one could leave.

The video went viral on social media.

The fiscal noted in the resolution that the offense on the disturbance of proceedings met the following elements:

“First, there shall be a meeting of the National Assembly or of any of its committees or subcommittees, commissions or committees or divisions thereof, or of any provincial board or city or municipal council or board.

Second, the offender shall be deemed to have committed an offense by doing any of the following acts: a) Disturbing any of such meetings. b) Behaving while in the presence of any such bodies in such a manner as to interrupt its proceedings or to impair the respect due to it.”

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The resolution issued on Feb. 16 likewise mentioned that Erfe-Mejia and Fernandez unlawfully “restrained and prevented complainants from exercising their lawful right as members of the SP.”

The city prosecutor’s office also recognized that while criticisms made by the councilors toward Kua were in connection with their dissatisfaction over the performance of their respective duties, malicious imputations and personal verbal attacks still amounted to oral defamation.

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The conflict between the councilors and Kua was rooted in the delayed passing of Dagupan City’s annual budget.

Erfe-Mejia, Fernandez, Lim-Acosta, and four other councilors are also longtime political rivals of Kua and Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez, the resolution pointed out.

When the P1.3-billion city budget was passed, the three councilors sought to remove and render as irrelevant the records of proceedings that led to the spending plan’s approval, according to the resolution.

“The respondents are members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, however holding an esteemed position is never a license to act capriciously with impunity. As occupants of their exalted positions, (these Councilors) are expected to observe a higher degree of courtesy and decorum, especially while attending the session,” the resolution states.