Libel against editor and publisher dismissed
CMFR/PHILIPPINES – The Baguio City Regional Trial Court dismissed the libel case against the Baguio Midland Courier editor in chief Cecil Afable and publisher Charles Hamada last 1 August 2011. Baguio City is approximately 206 kilometers north of Manila.
In a 13-page decision, Branch 61 Judge Antonio C. Reyes acquitted Afable and Hamada for the libel charges after the complainant failed to prove that paper’s editorial is defamatory, malicious and identified the supposed victim.
Afable and Hamada were sued on 7 February 2006 by then Baguio City Budget Officer Leticia Clemente for a 29 January 2006 Baguio Midland Courier editorial which described a “lady finance officer” who “could accommodate two romances at the same time.” Clemente claimed that she was the lady finance officer being described in the editorial.
The editorial read: “the people of Baguio are not just carabaos whose nose rings make them easy to lead. If there is no Panagbenga that caused the dissension and division in Baguio, this would be a dead city. The dissension brought out such interesting gossip and funny stories like: the finance officer who signs for (Mayor Mauricio) Domogan’s monthly allowances; that this finance lady accommodate(s) two romances at the same time. This can be a dirty joke.”
Pablito Sanidad, lawyer of Afable and Hamada, in an interview with PJR Reports said after being pended for five years, Reyes dismissed all charges against Afable and Hamada on the grounds that the statement is not libelous since it is not defamatory, it has no malice and did not identify the supposed victim.
The court said in the 1 August 2011 decision that “since it is not defamatory then logically, the presumption of malice was overcome.”
The court also said that the alleged “allusion to Atty. Clemente was elaborated on by her because of her job description as the City Budget Officer and concurrently, the chairperson of the Local Finance Committee of the Baguio City Government, where she prepares the city budget and acts as the chief fiscal adviser of the city mayor and the city council.”
The ruling added that Clemente is also “assigned from time to time and in cases when there and where there are special events conducted by the city government, especially tourism related events where the finance committee is automatically involved like the Christmas festivities, Independence Day and Baguio Day Celebrations and the Panagbenga, the yearly flower festival hosted by the city”.
[…] case filed against Baguio Midland Courier editor Cecil Afable and publisher Charles Hamada (httpss://www.cmfr-phil.org/2011/08/26/libel-against-editor-and-publisher-dismissed/). Afable and Hamada were sued on 7 February 2006 by then Baguio City Budget Officer Leticia […]