Sass Sasot to file a libel case against Jover Laurio for accusing her an 'international prostitute'
 |
| Sass Sasot and Jover Laurio |
Sasot on her post, is raising a fund amounting $10,000 for the case she's going to file.
"I've already spoken with a lawyer and several folks have already agreed to witness on my behalf. Now, I would like to ask your help to raise funds for the libel case I'm going to file against Jover Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog, who seems to be being backed by the machinery of the Liberal Party of the Philippines," Sasot said.
Sasot mentioned that the target of filing of the case is next month, November.
Check out full details below:
This is how Maria Josephina Vergina “Jover” Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog libelled me. Laurio for a long time has been shielded by anonymity as she libeled people, which include me. Now that the identity of the author of Pinoy Ako Blog has been known, I am filing a libel case against her.
I have just recently finished my master's (graduating this month). And my current bread-and-butter is my job as an opinion columnist in the Manila Times. I'd be needing help to cover the legal expenses of this legal battle against Jover Laurio who seems to be being backed by the machinery of the Liberal Party of the Philippines.
I foresee a long battle ahead and I would appreciate any help I could get. The target of filing of the case is next month, November.
Maraming salamat po!
THE STORY
In January 2017, ThinkingPinoy and I exposed the publicly accessible e-mail sent by Imelda Nicolas to the Yahoogroup Global Diaspora Council. That email became what was known as #LeniLeaks.
Imelda Nicolas was part of the cabinet of the Aquino Administration. Nicolas forwarded to that Yahoogroup an email from Pete Silva, the point person when it comes to "the active online community that supports Mar Roxas" during the 2016 elections (see: http://ift.tt/2icD2bT).
According to the details in Nicolas' email, Silva messaged her on Facebook on the 4th of January 2017. This is how the message was headlined: FROM OVP SOCMED. OVP stands for the Office of the Vice President.
The email is a detailed instruction on how to launch a counter-attack against the critics of the Vice President of the Philippines, who at that time was receiving so much flak for having a personal vacation in the US while her hometown was being ravaged by a typhoon. And the email specifically wanted to target Thinking Pinoy, Mocha Uson, and I.
The next day, January 5, Jover Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog posted on her Facebook Page an accusation that I am working as a paid escort. That post was even accompanied by one of my pictures (see: http://ift.tt/2gEYLFO)
That same accusation was posted by Madam Claudia Facebook Page, another Liberal Party-aligned blogged whose website is web administered by Cocoy Dayao, the Web Security Consultant of the Presidential Communications Operations Office of the previous administration.
On the same day, I posted a reply on my Facebook Page, debunking their expose that I’m working as a prostitute here in the Netherlands.
(see: http://ift.tt/2icD2IV).
The pictures they used were lifted out of my personal Facebook Page. These Liberal Party-aligned bloggers fabricated stories about them, including the one Jover Laurio wrote in her blog Pinoy Ako Blog.
Yet despite that explanation, on January 10, Jover Laurio wrote another post, this time posting another picture of mine with accompanying prices (see: http://ift.tt/2gErr1C).
Since then, Jover Laurio has often targeted me in her blog. I don’t really mind her tirades on whatever I say. Besides the libellous claim that I work as a prostitute here in the Netherlands, what bothered me is the way she has deadnamed me every time she posted.
Until recently, most of her tirades against me starts with “Dear Ate Allantroy.” Allantroy is my birth legal name. A name that I no longer use, save for legal documents, as that name don’t represent the gender I live.
According to Sam Riedel in her article in The Huffington Post on March 17, 2017, “For transgender people, our relationships to our names are complicated, to say the least. What we’re called has power, and hearing a blatantly masculine or feminine name applied to you when you’re trying to realign your gender in a different direction can be a source of profound, dysphoria-inducing anxiety. Hearing or seeing one’s old name can induce a visceral sense of terror that no matter how much progress one makes in their transition, the person they used to be (or pretended to be) is still there.” (see: http://ift.tt/2ibOt3B)
Besides the humiliation brought by her fabricated story that I work as a prostitute here in The Netherlands, Jover Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog subjected me to the TERROR Riedel identified for SEVERAL MONTHS while hiding behind the veil of ANONYMITY.
Because of that profound terror I experienced from Jover Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog, it has become my PERSONAL quest to find out who is behind that blog. My first link is Cocoy Dayao, the registered domain holder and administrative contact of Pinoy Ako Blog. Then my friend RJ Nieto of Thinking Pinoy blog found out about Jover Laurio.
When she could no longer deny she’s Pinoy Ako Blog, Jover Laurio admitted she’s the one behind the blog that libelled me and subjected me to the terror of being dead named for SEVERAL MONTHS. Mainstream media flocked towards her including Philippine Star, Rappler, CNN, Al Jazeera, and BBC World News (https://youtu.be/XrnmsOfrQzs), which didn’t even bother to get the sides of the story of the people she slandered and who actually exerted efforts to find out who is behind Pinoy Aka Blog! From anonymity, with the help of her politically powerful friends in the Philippines, Jover Laurio suddenly got international mileage.
The Tindig Pilipinas Movement, an offshoot of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, stood behind Jover Laurio. As they do that, all I can feel is the amplification of TERROR I’ve experienced for SEVERAL MONTHS as Jover Laurio spread the lie that I work as a prostitute here in The Netherlands and as she dead named me repeatedly while she enjoyed the buffer provided by her anonymity.
If you want to help Sass, you can donate here.
Source/s: GagaGives, Sass Sasot
No comments: