Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela has filed a cyber libel complaint against influencer and The Manila Times columnist Sass Rogando Sasot, suing her for P1.25 million. This is the influencer’s second cyber libel suit this year, after economist and former Finance Undersecretary Cielo Magno sued Sasot in March.
Tarriela submitted his complaint to the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, July 4, represented by lawyers from the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD). He claims that Sasot made several defamatory statements about him. “The respondent employed underhanded tactics to insinuate that I am involved in suspicious and criminal activity, often avoiding any explicit statements,” he wrote in the complaint.
“Between July and October 2024, [Sasot] published a series of defamatory posts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter),” MAD said in a statement. “These posts falsely insinuate that Commodore Tarriela is involved in bribery, corruption, dishonesty, and misconduct.”
“This conduct is not protected speech. It is libelous, harmful, and unlawful, and those responsible must be held legally accountable,” the organization added.
Magno similarly cited Sasot’s “malicious, demeaning, and defamatory” remarks in her suit against the blogger. She said that Sasot has accused her on social media of bribing legislators to uncover the name “Mary Grace Piattos” in the House of Representatives’ probe into Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also named Sasot among other vloggers who shared false information from a video claiming Hontiveros and other lawmakers influenced a man to testify against Apollo Quiboloy in the Senate’ probe into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hontiveros filed a cyber libel complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday, July 2, against the man in the video, Michael Maurilio.
Sasot was one of the 37 influencers who failed to appear at the House tri-committee hearing on online disinformation in February. Like many of the other content creators who did not attend the hearing, including SMNI broadcasters Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz, Krizette Chu, and Mark Anthony Lopez, she is a vocal supporter of the Duterte administration.
In March, the House issued contempt orders against her, Badoy, and Celiz. Explaining her absence, Sasot said that she lived in Beijing, China and was unable to attend the hearings through Zoom.
