MANILA, Philippines – Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III filed a cyber-libel complaint against Edward Angelo “Cocoy” Dayao who is allegedly behind the “Silent No More PH” blog.

Sotto filed the complaint himself before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, November 28.

A week before, Sotto told reporters of his plan against Dayao, who is formerly associated with the Aquino administration, and slammed the supposed lies Dayao propagated in the blog. (READ: What you need to know about #Cocoygate)

Sotto also earlier said that even a public apology from Dayao would not be enough to console him.

“Balewala ‘yung sinasabi niya [na] hindi kami pumirma. Nag-imbento siya ng istoryang ganoon na mali, na hindi naman kami pinapirma talaga. Balewala ‘yun. ‘Yung name-calling niya ang libelous,” Sotto earlier said.

(What he said about us not signing the document, that’s nothing. He just invented it. That’s nothing. But his name-calling, that is libelous.) t

Sotto was referring to a “Silent No More PH” blog post that described him and 6 other senators as Malacañang lapdogs because they did not sign a resolution condemning the drug-related killings of minors. (READ: Senators bicker over ‘exclusion’ from resolution vs killing of minors)

The other 6 senators slammed in the blog entry were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Manny Pacquiao, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Cynthia Villar, and Richard Gordon.

Dayao was a no-show at the Senate public information committee hearing on October 4. Committee chairperson Grace Poe, who praised a pro-Duterte blogger accused of spreading wrong information, said a subpoena will be issued against Dayao.

Earlier, Maria Josephina Vergina “Jover” Laurio, the woman behind the anti-Duterte Pinoy Ako Blog, revealed her identity after pro-Duterte bloggers slammed her in the hearing.

Laurio said Dayao, the site’s webmaster, only handled the technical aspects of her site such as domain registration, but content creation is hers alone. – Rappler.com