Philippine blogger facing libel suit filed by former Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary
Januray 2010- In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation filed a libel complaint against blogger Ella Ganda upon the request of former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Esperanza Cabral, over a blog post, published on October 21, 2009, that exposed stockpiles of unprocessed relief goods intended for victims of supertyphoon Ketsana. Blogger Ella claimed that “employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development had hoarded relief goods that were donated for the victims of the devastating Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (Ketsana) and Typhoon “Pepeng” (Parma)”.
In her blog post Ella also posted “photos of imported blankets and mats supposedly donated by foreign agencies stored in the alleged DSWD warehouse”.
According to the Inquirer.net, the libel case against Ella was “for claiming that relief goods were left to rot in a government agency warehouse“.
On her blog, Ella reacted by saying:
It was never my intention to villify Sec. Cabral, or the good people at the DSWD. My reaction at the sight of tons of relief goods which were apparently not moving was one of anger, of helplessness and dismay.