Prosecutor or judge will determine the crime committed based on your allegations

Prosecutor or judge will determine the crime committed based on your allegations "Good day! What will I do to people who are always monitoring what I am doing? I have these neighbors who keep an eye on me and keep on talking about me in our neighborhood. They even tell stories to my mother about me that made my mother angry at me and caused a fight between us. I want this to be stopped. Can I go to the barangay and file an oral defamation case against them? Thank you and God bless. Mabuhay po kayo! Evalyn Dear Evalyn,Article 358 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) defines and penalizes the crime of Slander or Oral Defamation: “Art. 358. Slander.—Oral defamation shall be punished by arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period if it is of a serious and insulting nature otherwise the penalty shall be arresto menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos.”Whether the offense committed is serious or slight oral defamation, depends not only upon the sense and grammatical meaning of the utterances but also upon the special circumstances of the case, like the social standing or the advanced age of the offended party (Victorio v. Court of Appeals, 173 SCRA 645 [1989] Balite v. People, 18 SCRA 280 [1966]). Thus, if the words which were uttered against you by your neighbors are serious or insulting in nature, the crime committed is grave oral defamation and the imposable penalty is arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period or imprisonment with the range of four months and one day to two years and four months. On the other hand, if the defamatory words are not of serious nature, then the crime is only slight oral defamation and the imposable penalty is arresto menor or imprisonment for 1 to 30 days.As a general rule, under Section 408 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, the lupon of each barangay shall have an authority to bring together the parties actually residing in the same city or municipality for amicable settlement of all disputes. An exception to this is found in the paragraph c of the said law which provides, to wit: “SEC. 408. Subject Matter for Amicable Settlement Exception Thereto. - : x x x (c) Offenses punishable by imprisonment exceeding one (1) year or a fine exceeding Five thousand pesos (P5,000.00) x x x”Although it appears that if the crime committed by your neighbors is grave oral defamation wherein the maximum imposable penalty is more than one year, there is no need to go to the barangay for amicable settlement, we still deem it necessary to bring the matter to the barangay for possible amicable settlement. This is because the gravity of the crime committed against you is not for you to determine. It is the prosecutor or the judge, as the case may be, who will determine the crime committed based on your allegations in the complaint that you will file soon against your neighbors. Furthermore, under the Revised Katarungang Pambarangay Law and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, barangay conciliation procedure is a pre-condition to judicial action. Hence, it is still necessary for you to bring your complaint against your neighbor before the barangay. If no amicable settlement is reached between you and your neighbors before the lupon, the latter will issue the necessary Certification to File Action for you to be able to institute the necessary criminal and civil actions against them before the proper courts. We hope that we were able to enlighten you on the matter. Please take note however, that all the information contained herein are based on our appreciation of your question and on the assumptions we made. A different legal opinion may be given if other facts not included in your query will be discussed. Editor’s note: Dear PAO is a daily column of the Public Attorney’s Office. Questions for Chief Acosta may be sent to dearpao@manilatimes.net" - https://www.affordablecebu.com/