‘CRIME SCENE’ Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City was the setting for a viral video in October 2023 that led to the filing of a criminal complaint against private school teacher Janus Munar. —Inquirer file photo
MANILA, Philippines — A Quezon City court has junked the criminal case filed against a private school teacher who shared on social media last year a video of a police officer identifying Vice President Sara Duterte as the “VIP” behind the closure of a portion of Commonwealth Avenue, causing heavy traffic in the area.
In an order dated Sept. 30, Judge Catherine Manodon of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 104 granted the motion for reconsideration filed by Janus Munar in June this year, thus dismissing the case against him.
The teacher was accused of violating Section 154 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes the “unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances,” for posting a video of the complainant, Police Executive Master Sgt. Verdo Pantollano, identifying Duterte as the supposed VIP who caused the closure of a portion of the busy thoroughfare to allow her convoy to pass through.
In his motion filed through his lawyer, Chel Diokno, Munar pointed out that the amended complaint filed by Pantollano remained “defective” as it still did not contain a specific offense as the original complaint.
Continuing violation
This, he said, was a “continuing violation of his constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of [the] accusation against him.”
The court agreed with Munar’s pleading, saying that it found the amended information “still suffers from the same defect.”
Citing a 2019 Supreme Court decision, People of the Philippines v. Rolando Solar, the court noted that a person should know the offenses he or she supposedly committed.
“A review of Article 154 provides for four modes of commission of the crime … At the outset, the information failed to point which of these particular acts was committed by the accused,” read the court order.
It also opposed the claim of the police officer, who was assigned to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), that the viral video was disseminated online as “news” that could endanger public order or discredit the government.
Not news
“The mere publication or causing of publication does not suffice to establish a crime, but the publication or causing thereof must be characterized by the phrase ‘as news,’” it ruled. “In this case, there is nothing in the information, which states that [the] accused published the video as news.”
The court also said the allegation that the video “further propagates the public disorder caused by the incident” did not help the prosecution’s cause as it merely emphasized that the traffic jam—not the circulated video—caused the public disturbance.
“The amended information, by using the phrase ‘further propagates,’ suggests that it was the traffic incident, which disturbed the public order and the accused’s act of uploading the video simply aggravated the disturbance,” it added.
The video circulated on social media on Oct. 5 last year, showed a police officer walking up to a motorist to explain that Commonwealth Avenue had to be closed off because “VP Sara” was “to cross” the highway. Upon learning who the “VIP” was, the motorist’s curiosity turned to irritation as he panned his camera to show rows of cars and motorcycles caught in heavy traffic.
Days later, the Office of the Vice President issued a statement saying that Duterte was “not involved in the traffic disruption” as she was in Mindanao at the time for World Teacher’s Day.
The QCPD, for its part, immediately relieved Pantollano, who was reinstated a week after the incident.