With the knowledge that farmers or the masses have no means to get good defense lawyers (except from the Public Attorney's Office or PAO whose officers hardly follow the examples of Attorney General Persida Acosta) fast, if they ever get one at all, Deputy Provincial Prosecutor James Gerald R. Florendo issued the subpoena below requiring respondent - a farmer from the rural barangays of Santo Domingo in Ilocos Sur, to respond to the accusation of cyber libel, the same day that the farmer received the subpoena delivered by the police in Wednesday, January 7, this tear
The respondent was required to answer the allegations of the town's Municipal Agricultural Officer (MAO) Randy Jose Reburon who filed the case. Apparently, the comment in a social media post "John Park, brother... Please let us help each other... let us make a complain letter . I should be ashamed because the MAO is from our barangay. But there are a lot of complaints. He is ignoring us. he even defies the barangay officials and our Pres (president)..." was libelous.
The MAO is known for notoriety, with stories of abuse from reliable sources ranging from shouting at and kicking the basket of an old lady vendor at the public market, setting up poultry near residential homes causing massive flies swarming in nearby homes, to cornering supplies including cows for livelihood distribution of the Municipality, influencing cooperative World Bank-loaned projects such as supplying of hazardous GMO corn for farmers' cultivation which were only left to decay, reorganizing farmers' organizations, among others, the latest of which is filing this case to muffle the voice of the defenseless.
On the other hand, the deputy prosecutor, according to other sources, is known to summon detained drug users and small-time dealer-suspects in his home at Alta Mira, a high-end subdivision in Bantay, Ilocos Sur after they are apprehended. Others claim he is part of the group behind the ninety-thousand pesos bribery of drug case detainees. Usual victims suggest that the modus apprehension is common from September to November, if not year-round.
When the cyber-libel respondents went to file his response, he was declined as there was a need to rectify the "technicalities" of the "delayed" response, prolonging to the agony of the stressed and depressed farmer.
In an unrelated case, another fiscal in the same office dismissed the complaint of another defenseless victim of trespassing, theft, grave threat, among others just because the respondents explicitly inserted lies that the complainant was "proud" about her education, totally unrelated to the case. The complaint, filed December, only started to move by February after several follow-ups of the complainant - a stark difference of how Florendo handled the complaint of MAO Reburon, filed in the last week of December 2025 when all government employees and officials are already on holiday leave.
The question for such instances is who disciplines the likes of Florendo who definitely showed grave abuse of authority or a violation of Rule 112, Rules of Criminal Procedure with set period of response for preliminary investigation at ten (10) days?
Not even the country's president can issue such notice to summon a person to reply within the day of notice.
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