Retaliation from the Accused for the same case to the Complainant

Hello Atty(s),

Good day! I am writing on behalf of my sister who initially filed an RA 7610 from one 41-year-old accused. Her 11-year-old daughter was maligned, embarassed and was cursed infront of other people last year because one playmate said to the accused that my niece is spreading rumor that her mom gossips too much (a.k.a. tsismosa). However, my niece denied this as she never said those words.

The accused admittedly confronted the child but denied maligning my niece as according to her counteraffidavit, she only did the confrontation to correct her much like a "mom would to her child".

The court found a probable cause and it escalated to the court and trial hearing was set.

However, we learned that after the accused knew of the warrant of arrest issued to her, she concocted a story that back in 2013, my sister (the mother of my 11-year-old niece) had hit her son in the head physically  to make the story believable. We were told she filed a case but we have yet to wait for the subpoena telling us that she filed a case against my sister. She immediately lodged a blotter this year (the stature of limitations as far as I know is 10 years) and filed a case (according to some people we know).

I am writing this to help us prepare in case the subpoena arrives accusing my sister of the same complaint we filed against her.

I have few questions, and I am really really hoping that someone can shed light to these:

1. If the accused claims that the incident happened in 2013 but the blotter was made only this year, how would the court feel about the integrity of the complaint especially we have filed the RA 7610 case against her prior to her own complaint?

2. We won't know if they were able to get a medical exam (if indeed my sister hit the child back in 2013), but would a medical exam necessary on this case?

3. What are the chances of this complaint being dismissed as we know that this is a retaliation on the case we filed prior? Would the court even recognize such coincidence?

4. Also, why only complain now, why not back in 2013 if the accused was so sure my sister hit her child physically? And why not record of such blotter until only this year? As a mother, I think it is our duty to protect our children if they were really wronged.

To be honest, my sister is very open to settle if she only apologize to her child in person but this person is so conceited and won't even admit her mistakes thus my sister was left with no choice but to file the case in court after the impact it caused to my niece. Now, they are out to discredit my niece by filing the same complaint.

I look forward to your responses. I will thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

If you can settle now, settle immediately...if the case go on you will waste too much time and money on court proceedings.

Thanks for the response. Even before we filed the case, we were hoping that they will come and visit my sister to explain their confrontation with my niece. But they never talked to us after that incident.

We noticed that even before the case was filed, they tried to even make it worse by targeting my other niece by saying harshful words. Still they never even bothered to approach us that they are willing to settle after the case was filed. From the looks of it, they decided to fight the case and in retaliation, also planned to file the same case against my sister.

In summary, it's very hard to forgive or settle these issues with people are not sorry for what they have done. Likewise, it's hard to initiate the settlement if we are the aggrieved party and they expect us to approach them and initiate the settlement process.