Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is drawing flak over the libel suits he filed against seven media companies which reported on the graft complaint he is facing over the sale of majority shares in the Malampaya natural gas project to bilyonaryo Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corporation.

READ: P200M in damages sought: Cusi sues Carlo Katigbak for ABS-CBN’s reporting on graft raps over Dennis Uy’s Malampaya takeover

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said Cusi should not be onion skinned as a government official.

“Ang isang opisyal ng gobyerno ay di maaring balat-sibuyas dahil bahagi ang pagpuna at pagbatikos sa kaniya ng publiko na kaniya dapat pagsilbihan. ‘Di maaring balat-sibuyas ang mga ito lalo na dun sa makakapal ang mukhang lantarang sangkot sa katiwalian at kurapsyon,” the lawmaker said in a statement Saturday (December 4).

Gaite said the libel suits filed by Cusi against ABS-CBN, BusinessWorld, Rappler, PhilStar Global, Manila Bulletin, GMA, and Business Mirror are baseless.

“Sa aking pagtingin, walang libel na muling isinampa ni Cusi dahil mali, walang malisya ang media groups sa simpleng pagreport ng mga kaganapan. ‘Yan ang pangunahing tungkulin ng media na mismong nakasaad sa ating saligang batas, ang ‘freedom of speech’ at ‘freedom of the press’ na di maaring hadlangan,” he said.

Cusi claimed to have suffered “reputational damage” as a result of the news reports posted by the seven media organizations on the graft complaint filed against him.

The news articles were based on the announcement of a group of three concerned citizens who sued him for graft and for allowing a lopsided deal to be executed, even if it works against public interest and forfeited billions of pesos in government revenues.

Cusi is seeking P200 million in damages from the media companies named in his libel complaints.

The post ‘Wag balat sibuyas! Cusi slammed for libel suits vs media first appeared on Bilyonaryo Business News.



‘Wag balat sibuyas! Cusi slammed for libel suits vs media
Source: Filipino Daily Inquirer