00:00The Department of Justice orders cyber libel cases to be filed against lawyer Ferdinand Topasho and five other pro-Duterte
00:07personalities.
00:08This stems from complaints from Senator Risa Ontiveros over statements they made when she was leading an investigation on Apollo
00:14Quiboloy.
00:15Besides Topasho, the other respondents are Jay Sonza, Byron Cristobal also known as Banat Bay, Jeffrey Selys also known as
00:22Ka-Eric,
00:23Chrisette Chu also known as Kiffy, and Alex Destor also known as Tio Moreno.
00:27In a resolution made public on Tuesday, November 10, the DOJ grants Ontiveros' petition to overturn earlier dismissals of her
00:34complaints against the respondents.
00:36The complaints included Michael Maurilio who appeared as a witness in the Senate probe on Quiboloy.
00:41Maurilio testified that he was abused and exploited as a worker for Quiboloy's sect and then later appeared in a
00:46video claiming Ontiveros made him fabricate his testimony.
00:50Topasho, Sonza, Cristobal, Selys, Chu, and Destor echoed Maurilio's claims and made other accusations against Ontiveros in their own posts.
00:58At first, the DOJ charged only Maurilio for cyber libel and dismissed Ontiveros' complaints against the six others.
01:05She then filed a petition for review, which the DOJ now affirms.
01:09It says the respondents presented the accusations against her not as suspicions or opinions, but as though they were facts
01:15of wrongdoing.
