The Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 118 has issued a hold departure order (HDO) against former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada.
“The commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration is hereby directed to hold the departure of [Mejorada] to prevent him from leaving the country until further orders from this court,” the order stated.
The HDO, dated Dec. 9, 2020, was signed by Presiding Judge Rowena Nieves A. Tan. It was made public on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Mejorada was found guilty of four counts of cyber libel for Facebook and blog posts accusing Senator Franklin Drilon of alleged overpricing and other irregularities in various projects in Iloilo, including the Iloilo Convention Center.
In 2017, the Pasay RTC sentenced Mejorada to a prison term of at least two years and five months to a maximum of four years and five months.
The blogger’s conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals (CA) in 2018.
Mejorada then appealed to the Supreme Court (SC) but failed to get a favorable ruling.
“As correctly ruled by the Court of Appeals (CA), the elements of libel were sufficiently established by the prosecution,” the SC said in its 2019 ruling.
“It was not necessary to establish that the publication was motivated by any malice since the articles were not privileged communication or fair comments; thus, malice is presumed,” the high court further said.IMT
