Medialdea files libel suit vs. special envoy Tulfo

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea has filed a libel complaint against special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo for writing an allegedly malicious newspaper column.

"I filed it last June and just kept quiet about it," Medialdea said on Friday.

Filed before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office, the complaint was about his "alleged involvement at PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office),” Medialdea said.

In a May 28 column published by the Manila Times, Tulfo cited unnamed sources to say that Medialdea and PCSO board director Sandra Cam were in an "unholy alliance."

Tulfo said Medialdea was Cam's link to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Cam had asked to be relieved from her post because of alleged corruption in the agency but Malacañang said she was free to resign.

Tulfo wrote that former PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan was surrounded by "corrupt" board directors, "including Cam," whom he claimed benefited from illegal gambling operators.

He said all PCSO board members were appointed upon recommendation of Medialdea and "regularly report" to the executive secretary.

"Now, if Medialdea's wards are corrupt, what does that make of him?" Tulfo wrote.

In a July 23 column, Tulfo said the libel complaint was filed on June 17 and that he expects it to quickly progress from the prosecutor's office to the courts.

He said: "Shame on you, Bingbong, for using the power of your office to harass journalists who are doing their job of exposing the ills of society and government!"

The Palace official also referred to a column Tulfo wrote and which he found objectionable in a July 26 letter to the editorial board of the Manila Times.

The opinion piece was published on July 25. He said the column would be the basis for new cases.

"I would have urged Tulfo to observe responsible journalism, but that might prove to be a futile exercise," Medialdea wrote in a statement that he requested the Times to publish in full.

"I chose to be quiet in all his backhanded accusations and malicious articles against me, and let my lawyer just file the appropriate libel case against him for a libelous article he previously wrote in this newspaper," he added.

The column claimed that the Office of the Executive Secretary was withholding the release of a P272.07-million cash reward the government supposedly owed a private person who tipped authorities about smuggling in Mariveles, Bataan in 1997.

Tulfo wrote that a certain Felicito Mejorado had complained to him about the delay in the release of the money.

The column alleged that Mejorado said his reward claim had been pending with Medialdea's office for a year and that Mejorado promised to give one Vianney Garol, who claimed to be a presidential consultant, P72 million as compensation for the release of the reward.

"Garol allegedly told Mejorado that the P72 million was for me," the executive secretary wrote.

The official said he had never met Garol, whom he found out to have been appointed as a project development officer in the now-defunct Office of External Affairs - Davao in 2005.

He said that Mejorado's claim had been denied by the Department of Finance, and has been pending before his office only for three months, contrary to Tulfo's claim of a year.

He added that the appeal, which he said had been submitted for resolution just 22 days before July 26, requires "careful review of the merits of the case, which cannot be done in merely 22 days from the last submission of pleadings."

"I assure Mejorado that the OP will resolve his appealed case with the objectivity of an impartial judge," Medialdea wrote.

"In closing, I cannot overemphasize the importance of discernment and to take things coming from Tulfo with a grain, if not a kilo, of salt," he added.

Tulfo responded to Medialdea's letter in another column on Thursday. He said the Palace official "should get his facts and his dates straight and accurate."

"What am I trying to point out here? That my criticism of him now and in the past is fair commentary because he’s a government official. A government official should not be onion-skinned," Tulfo wrote.

He claimed that he has "nothing personal" against Medialdea.

"So, why would I wage a “personal vendetta” — his own words — against the now honorable executive secretary when I had no reason to?" Tulfo said. —NB/RSJ, GMA News