Robin: Twitter critic ignored my rights

ACTOR Robin Padilla on Monday accused a netizen of disrespecting his rights and acting as an “investigator, judge and executioner all at the same time.”

Padilla, a staunch supporter of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, said this in his affidavit as he formalized his online libel complaint against Twitter user Miss Krizzy who went by the username @krizzy_kalerqui.

In a six-page affidavit, Padilla said that “Miss Krizzy  (@krizzy_kalerqui) did not give me that chance—a right to dispute or admit the veracity of [the] intended post.”

“The only conclusion we can derive from this is that when it comes to serious matters, Miss Krizzy (@krizzy_kalerqui) does not respect other people’s rights,” he added.

Padilla’s complaint was spurred by a photo he posted online on May 9 showing a shaded ballot indicating his choice of Duterte for President and Anak Mindanao for party-list group.

The photo was later retweeted by Miss Krizzy with the caption: “This is a clear violation of election law. Throw him in jail! #Halalan2016”. She and Padilla have since deleted their controversial posts.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier warned voters that it was illegal to take pictures of their ballots and post these online.

PADILLA

“Miss Krizzy (@krizzy_kalerqui) never even asked me if I was the one who actually and personally posted the supposed photograph prior to [the] libelous posting/reporting,” Padilla said.

“In effect, Miss Krizzy (@krizzy_kalerqui) acted as an incompetent investigator, judge and executioner all at the same time,” he added.

According to him, what he had uploaded was the photo of a shaded sample ballot as his way of expressing his desire to vote.

Padilla lost his right to suffrage after a Pampanga court found him guilty of illegal possession of firearms in 1994. Despite a presidential pardon, it was not reinstated.

“Miss Krizzy (krizzy_kalerqui) should have first inquired with me about the veracity of his/her claim before making such a malicious post/report, especially since this is a serious matter,” the actor said.

Padilla’s lawyer, Rudolph Philip Jurado, provided the Inquirer a copy of his client’s affidavit. He said that their camp would file the affidavit today in the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD). They were supposed to do so on Monday but failed to due to time constraints.

Last week, Jurado and Padilla met with the NBI-CCD to ask it to establish the real identity of Miss Krizzy, who as of May 16, had 318,000 followers on Twitter.

In a Twitter post on May 12, the same day Padilla sought the NBI’s help, Miss Krizzy said:  “Bashing is subjectively hitting a particular personality. It is totally different from stating a generic and objective reason. #THINK.”

Earlier, Padilla said that he filed the case because the netizen’s action forced him to explain to his daughter Kylie that he was an ex-convict, “a very painful act.”

According to him, he sent his daughters to Australia to erase the ex-convict stigma only for it to haunt him again.