THE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a lower court ruling finding probable cause to proceed with the trial of the libel case filed against the publisher, editor in chief and two news correspondents of daily broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI).

In a six-page decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, the Court’s Third Division dismissed the petition for review on certiorari filed by PDI publisher Isagani Yambot, editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc and correspondents Teddy Molina and Juliet Pascual, seeking the withdrawal of the information for libel filed against them before Branch 21 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Ilocos Sur.

The libel case stemmed from the news articles published in the PDI on May 2 and 3, 1996, accusing lawyer Raymundo Armovit of harboring his client, Rolito Go, who had escaped from jail a few days before he was sentenced to a maximum of 40 years imprisonment for the killing of Eldon Maguan, a 25-year-old De La Salle University student, on July 2, 1991.

Go was arrested three years after he escaped from jail.

On October 31, 1996, Ilocos Sur Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Nonatus Roja issued a resolution finding probable cause to indict the petitioners and correspondents for two counts of libel.

The Court held that the Court of Appeals did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it upheld the ruling of the RTC in Ilocos Sur, which denied the motion filed by the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor (OPP) seeking the withdrawal of the libel case it filed against Yambot and the others.

The OPP moved for the withdrawal of the information after the petitioner sought the review of its resolution which was approved by Regional State Prosecutor Constate Caridad.

The SC ruled that the RTC in Ilocos Sur has the prerogative to grant or deny the motion to withdraw the informations.

In a separate decision, the Court also upheld with modifications the ruling of the RTC in Pasay City that found tabloid columnist Erwin Tulfo; Susan Cambri, managing editor; Rey Salao, national editor; Jocelyn Barlizo, city editor and Philip Pichay, president, of the Carlo Publishing House Inc. of the daily tabloid Remate, guilty of four counts of libel filed by lawyer Carlos So, of the Bureau of Customs (BOC)-Intelligence and Investigation Service Division.

The RTC in Pasay City, in a ruling on November 17, 2000, ordered Tulfo and his coaccused to pay So more than P2.3 million representing actual, moral and exemplary damages. It also imposed a maximum of 16 years of imprisonment on the five.

In amending the lower court’s ruling, the Court instead imposed a P6,000 fine for each count of libel against the petitioners in lieu of imprisonment.

“Though we find petitioners guilty of the crime charged, the punishment must still be tempered with justice,” the SC said in a 31-page decision penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco.

The Court also ordered the petitioners to pay P1 million as moral damages and deleted the award of actual damages and exemplary damages.

Tulfo had accused So in his column of being involved in several anomalous transactions in the BOC.

The Albay PPO, meanwhile, dismissed the two counts of criminal libel filed more than a month ago by a confessed illegal gambling lord against staff members of a local weekly that has launched a serious antiillegal gambling crusade in the Bicol region.

The complaints stemmed from news articles and editorial published by Dyaryo Bikol in May and in June that said, “notorious con artists behind illegal gambling in Albay are back into their old business defeating a government initiative to stamp out jueteng through the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office-sponsored Small Town Lottery [STL].”

“The gambling syndicate allegedly headed by the tandem of Nora de Leon and Wilfredo ‘Boy’ Mayor, both known personalities in the local jueteng circle on May 5 took over from the management of Philippine Pacific Rim Corp. the operations of STL in the province,” the article said.

Mayor is a confessed illegal gambling lord who testified against the President’s husband, Mike Arroyo, and several other government officials in the Senate inquiry into the jueteng payola that rocked the government over three years ago.

In an eight-page joint resolution, Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Elmer Lanuzo and Maria Teresa Mahiwo said, “considering that the facts of these cases do not show either malice in fact or malice in law for reasons that the published materials are both qualified [as] privileged communication.”

Named as respondents in the complaints were Dyaryo Bikol publisher Marites Nual, associate publisher Marlyn Relingado, editor Danny Calleja, associate editor Job Belen, business manager Elsa Malaiba and legal consultant Ireneo de Lumen. (With D. Calleja)

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THE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a lower court ruling finding probable cause to proceed with the trial of the libel case filed against the publisher, editor in chief and two news correspondents of daily broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI).

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