A Quezon City court has quashed the complaint that retired jurist Harriet Demetriou filed against a Dominican priest under the country鈥檚 controversial, but still extant, blasphemy law.
Presiding Judge Zita Marie Atienza-Fajardo on May 7 dismissed Demetriou鈥檚 complaint against Rev. Winston Ferdinand Cabading for violating Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code, or offending religious feelings.
The court ruled that Cabading鈥檚 controversial remarks were not made in a place of worship or during a religious ceremony or that they were 鈥渘otoriously offensive to the faithful鈥濃�攖he two established elements of the crime.
鈥淭he Court finds that the subject statements made by the accused and alleged in the Amended Information are not notoriously offensive that are designed purely to ridicule or deliberately hurt the feelings of the faithful, or the devotees of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.鈥� Atienza-Fajardo said in her ruling.
The QC court also ruled that Cabading鈥檚 remarks were not made during a religious ceremony or at a place of worship but only posted in a Facebook livestream.
鈥淭he Court believes, and so holds, that the said 鈥榩rogram鈥� is a mere vlog posted in the Pananampalataya at Katuwiran Facebook account, which is a personal social media account of Bro. [Wendell] Talibong,鈥� the decision read.
But Demetriou, herself a former regional trial court (RTC) judge, Sandiganbayan justice and Commission on Elections chair, said she would continue to pursue the case.
Appeal to be filed
鈥淭he QC RTC dismissal of my case is not final,鈥� Demetriou told the Inquirer.
鈥淢y lawyers and I will appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter of all legal disputes. I鈥檒l exhaust all available remedies provided by law to every litigant,鈥� she added.
Demetriou filed the charges of offending religious feelings against Cabading in 2022 after the priest, an exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila, characterized the Marian apparitions at the Carmelite monastery in Lipa, Batangas, as 鈥渄emonic.鈥�
Caloocan Bishop Pablo David, president of the Catholic Bishops鈥� Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), admitted that apparitions should not have been characterized as 鈥渄emonic鈥� and apologized for the CBCP鈥檚 failure to intervene in the case.
Cabading argued in his defense that Demetriou鈥檚 charges were 鈥渙verbroad鈥� and that he was only exercising free speech in echoing a teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
But the Catholic episcopacy admitted in March that it failed to make public the 1951 finding of the Roman Catholic Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that the Lipa apparitions were not supernatural.
The 鈥渙ffending religious feelings鈥� case was the first of three cases Demetriou filed against Cabading. One of two perjury cases remains pending in a Quezon City court, while the other was dismissed by a Makati judge in January for lack of evidence.