Mayor’s libel case vs. PUNCH dismissed
TO be considered malicious, the libelous statements must be shown to have been written with the knowledge that they are false or in reckless disregard of whether they are false or not.
With this as a guiding principle, the City Prosecutor’s Office has dismissed the libel
complaint against editors and staff of The Sunday PUNCH filed by San Carlos City Mayor Julier Resuello.
The decision, dated July 29, 2010 and a copy of which was received by The PUNCH on August 25, is contained in a resolution handed down by 4th Assistant City Prosecutor Julie G. Sonson-Namoro and approved by City Prosecutor Pelagio Palma.
In the complaint, Resuello asked for P1 million in damages from respondents Ermin Garcia Jr., Leonardo Micua and Virgilio Biagtan for alleged defamation.
This stemmed from a banner story in The PUNCH in its April 25, 2010 issue entitled “Mayor, bursar face raps”, with a cartoon accompanying the story.
The news article reported on the complaint filed by Atty. Moises Tolentino in behalf of concerned citizens of San Carlos City against Resuello and Leny Fermin for alleged Malversation of Public Funds and/or Prevarications dated April 16, 2010 and was received by the Office of the Ombudsman for Luzon on April 16, 2010.
In his supplemental complaint affidavit, Resuello alleged that after a verification from the Office of the Ombudsman, he found that the complaint referred to in the story “was not actually filed and pending before the Office of the Ombudsman” and presented his Travel Clearance dated April 27, 2010 as proof.
In their counter-affidavits, the respondents through their lawyer Arginald Esguerra of the Regino, Palma, Raagas and Esguerra firm, maintained that the elements of libel are lacking in the complaint.
In dismissing the complaint, Namoro cited the case of Ogie Diaz vs. People of the Philippines where the Supreme Court held that for an imputation to be deemed libelous it must be defamatory, malicious, given publicity and the victim is identifiable. However, in the absence of one of these, a case of libel will not prosper.
Applying the Supreme Court decision, Namoro ruled that the libel complaint at bar had no defamatory imputation and malice as the news article is a report of a complaint filed against Resuello.–LM
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