And this entire Mira and now Marin mess started with Oscar Mira making a cyberbullying complaint against Alberto August. The Police Department acted immediately on the complaint made by its minister-and detained August for more than a day before charging him.
The avalanche of exposure against Mira that then ensued is now a matter of public record.
For the new Minister of Home Affairs on board, his first directive was to hand over the Alberto August cyberbullying case to the DPP for independent review, and she, of course, rubbished what was widely regarded as a frivolous charge.
The PM says he supports that decision, and then went on to discuss the cyberbullying law in depth.
Jomarie Lanza:
"The new Minister of Home Affairs immediately directed that the cyberbullying charge be sent to the DPP for review, and she told the police to discontinue with the charges and return the cell phones. What do you think of this?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I support that, and I have said it over and over that... okay, let us start with the cyberbullying law. There is a cyberbullying law that was passed by the previous government, and it provides for the action that has been taking place. I asked the Attorney General to take a look at it, and he thinks that it is unconstitutional. So quite likely, hopefully at the next House meeting, we have to make some amendments to that."
"So let's start with that. And secondly, I did ask the minister to have the DPP to take a look at it to see if there is a case or not; she decided that there is not a case. Thirdly, I would like to make it very clear that we need to be careful as politicians. I don't think that the public have a problem if a politician were to sue anybody because they believe they have been aggrieved or they have been slandered, but I think the public has a problem when they would feel that the minister is using the state to go after its enemies. Now, I am not in any way suggesting that... that is what Honorable Mira was doing. I don't think he was doing that; the police really felt that there was a case. But I just feel strongly that we should not go down that... we should not go down that road, because once you go down that road, then others can then take abuse of it, and we should not allow that."
Notably, on June third, the PM told us, quote, "Oscar Mira has every right to be able to make a report against him under the cyberbullying law."
