AFTER three weeks in the hospital, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella was discharged Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, according to Cebu City Administrator Floro Casas Jr.
Casas said Labella will be reporting back to work “very soon,” but may adopt a hybrid work arrangement that will allow him to work from home on some days and report physically to the City Hall on others.
“We still have to talk about that. But (he will report back to work) very soon,” Casas said in an interview Wednesday.
As this developed, an official of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said they have evidence to support cyber libel charges against a broadcaster who claimed in a Facebook post that Labella had died from cancer.
The Labella family denied this and posted on the mayor’s official Facebook page a proof-of-life photo showing the mayor with the day’s newspaper.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy city director for operations, said they have taken screenshots of the broadcaster’s Facebook post.
These and the mayor’s medical records will be used to support the charges should the Labella family decide to go after the broadcaster.
“Yes, we have a lot of screenshots (of the post), but this would depend on what action the mayor and his family will take,” Parilla said.
He urged the public to be circumspect about posting erroneous information on social media.
The broadcaster has not apologized and said he would only believe the family’s claims if he himself could take a photo of the mayor in his hospital bed.
Labella was brought to the hospital on July 13 due to persistent cough.
The mayor took a medical leave on July 14. The next week, he extended his medical leave. Casas then confirmed that Labella had pneumonia.
Throughout the mayor’s confinement, rumors persisted that he had died. These ended with the posting of the proof-of-life photo on Saturday, July 31.
“I would like to inform everyone na (that) I’m alive and doing well,” the Facebook post said.
The mayor first took a medical leave in January due to an ear infection.
On May 31, he took a three-day leave after he was hospitalized for “slight pneumonia.” On June 9, he took a three-week leave to fully recover from sepsis and on July 14, he took a three-day leave due to persistent cough. (JJL, AYB)