DG reporter files P10-M counter-suit vs lawyer

BACOLOD City – The news reporter of the Daily Guardian and former president of the Negros Press Club (NPC) filed a case for malicious prosecution against a lawyer who accused her of murder and frustrated murder together with ten others.

Veteran journalist Dolly Yasa also sought P10 million in indemnities from lawyer Erfe del Castillo for moral, emotional, and other damages.

Yasa filed the case with the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office on June 21, 2019.

To recall, Del Castillo accused Yasa of murder and frustrated murder together with businesswoman-celebrity Kate Brios, lawyer Jomax Ortiz, former Bacolod City police Chief Franciso Ebreo and several others.

The case stemmed from the alleged ambush on Del Castillo and her purported fiancé, former police Efren Palmares, in December 2018.

Palmares died in the ambush.

But on May 25, 2019, the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the charges against Yasa, Ebreo, and two others for lack of a probable cause.

In her decision, Prosecutor Marie Crystal May C. Vega dela Cerna said del Castillo failed to present any direct or pieces of circumstantial evidence to prove that Yasa and Ebreo were part or co-conspirators in the ambush.

 

TROUBLED

In her complaint-affidavit, Yasa said she was troubled when del Castillo announced in a press conference the filing of the case last Feb 24, 2019. Her quandaries continued until the prosecutor dismissed the case on May 25.

Yasa said she could not fathom why she would be accused and implicated in del Castillo’s ambush when she was just doing her job as a journalist.

Yasa said del Castillo’s press conference was carried live on Facebook by some reporters and was also broadcast on TV and radio and published in both local and national newspapers.

She added that her routine as a journalist was adversely affected as she refrained from attending press conferences and also avoided media gatherings.

She said that while she tried to regain composure, deep inside she was troubled and disturbed and had sleepless nights after the cases were filed.

She added that being accused of murder and frustrated murder is no joke.

“The physical, mental and psychological strain, stress and burden upon me because Atty. Erfe del Castillo implicated me in the case without substantial proof and basis is irreparable; the time that I would have been free of worry during the time the case was filed until it was dismissed can no longer be recovered; the happiness I could have felt even on simple things while I am enjoying my time with my children and my granddaughters can never be re-experienced; the laughter and camaraderie I would have shared with my colleagues in media outings and hangouts are forever lost; for a moment or a minute lost is lost forever,” Yasa said in her affidavit.