"When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered."
-- Christopher Dodd
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Rappler's Maria Ressa and her writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. have posted a bail of P100,000 each before the Manila Regional Trial Court for their temporary liberty in a cyber libel case the Department of Justice (DOJ) had "revived" for an on-line article written in 2012 that "maligned" businessman Wilfredo Keng.
In Iloilo City in the Philippines in 1999 or 20 years ago, I posted a total bail of P380,000 for the incredible 38 counts of libel cases filed by former Councilor Ramon Cua Locsin and the late Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) revenue district officer Godofredo San Jose Jr.
Our late publisher Marcos "Mark" Villalon and columnist Wenceslao Mateo Jr., my co-accused, posted the same amount each.
The libel cases first stemmed from an article written by Mr. Mateo in Sun.Star Iloilo Daily about Locsin's purported "conflict of interest" in relation to the purchase of a lot for the relocation of several displaced squatters in Brgy. So-oc, Molo district.
In Mr. Mateo's analysis, Locsin's firm appeared to gain benefit once the purchase would materialize.
Instead of disputing Mr. Mateo or writing a "letter-to-the editor" like what other forlorn public officials normally do in a similar situation, Locsin filed a libel case.
-o0o-
Like Ressa, who did not write the story about Keng, publisher Villalon and this writer were included in the charge sheet as publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively.
Reporters Ednalyn Belonio, Ruby Silubrico, and Lorelie Panes were initially included in the first wave of the case, but they were dropped in the succeeding cases, which arrived like a torrent of hurricane in an unprecedented volume.
Mr. San Jose entered the picture after Silubrico wrote a story about an incident in the jampacked SM City food court, where he was accused of tossing a P500 bill on a table occupied by several reporters, including this writer, who were there to cover the BIR's official receipts raffle promo.
I ordered two of the reporters, Fernando "Kapid" Gabio and Francis Terania, to immediately return the money to Mr. San Jose. We also reported the incident in the Mandurriao Police Station.
Mr. San Jose, who was frequently visited by reporters in his BIR office, according to him, was infuriated. He insisted one of the reporters who sat on the table was the one who demanded money from him earlier. When ribbed, he couldn't identify the reporter.
-o0o-
Then Bombo Radyo "Zona Libre" anchor and now Aksyon Radyo station manager John Paul Tia arranged a one-on-one joust between Mr. San Jose and this writer in his night program, where I politely reminded Mr. San Jose the SM City food court incident was the first time I ever met him personally; I went there to honor his invitation in a letter sent to our office a week earlier.
Mr. San Jose's libel case had been knocked out in the prosecutor's office.
Interestingy--and scandalously, all of the libel cases filed by Councilor Locsin had been "whisked" with mind-boggling alacrity and dispatch by the prosecutor's office to the trial court!
To add insult and mystery, most of the "libelous" articles were blind items written by different authors. Could malice, a main ingredient in a libel case, be proven in blind items? Whoa.
While the cases were in progress, we endured the hate and insult from our adversaries and their allies who couldn't bring us down to our knees.
It took five years since the cases were raffled off for trial to the different branches in the Hall of Justice from 1999 to 2004 when all the cases were finally dismissed: 38-0!
More than the triumph for press freedom, the episode exposed the inherent incompetence and corruption behind the characters responsible for elevating the cases to the trial court when they should have been dismissed in the prosecution level for being insubstantial and infirm in nature.
-o0o-
Ressa and Santos will be arraigned next month. They both have received tremendous moral support and otherwise from various media organizations in the Philippines and abroad.
Their supporters think Ressa and Santos, especially Rappler, are being "persecuted" owing to their rift with President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Most of their colleagues and sympathizers view DOJ's filing of the case and the subsequent NBI arrest to be an act to stifle the freedom of the press and expression.
There were those who argue, especially President Duterte's allies, that the president had nothing to do with the case filed by Keng, who is a private businessman
As long as democracy is alive and won't be raped by a despotic rule, Ressa, Santos, and the Rappler will be able to surmount this crisis.
“If you call your opponent a politician, it's grounds for libel.”
--Mark Russell
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- In a democratic state like the Philippines, onion-skinned politicians and other known enemies of press freedom use the libel case to harass and intimidate practicing journalists.
They are aware that libel is a criminal offense, thus punishable by fine and imprisonment under the Philippine jurisprudence.
They aren’t actually after the fine.
Most of them want to see the journalists who have “offended” or “defamed” them go to jail.
That’s the bone of their contention; that’s what they want to happen.
Most of them think sending a journalist to jail via the libel case is already tantamount to “avenging” against the journalist’s critical newspaper articles and commentaries.
No normal human being, including a journalist, would want to go to jail.
However, we prefer being charged in court (which they refer to as “the proper forum”) than being murdered.
The Philippines, after all, is the most dangerous country in Asia for journalists, according to the media watchdogs.
It’s actually the biggest cemetery in the world for members of the Fourth Estate based on statistics on media killings.
-o0o-
Going to jail for a libel case filed by a public official, so far, hasn’t caused any iota of fear and embarrassment to any journalist who is merely doing his job.
When we are arrested and manacled, it’s not because we committed a heinous crime or stole a neighbor’s wallet.
It’s because we made somebody, who has very poor understanding and appreciation of the nature of our profession, mad.
It’s because somebody doesn’t have the delicadeza misusing the public funds, using public office for advancement of his whims and caprices, and for engaging in transactions and activities inimical to public interest.
After being charged for libel and spending a few hours or days in jail, a Filipino journalist, in many cases, becomes a celebrity and hailed as a hero of press freedom; he gets invitations left and right to speak about the hazards of his profession in universities and other gatherings.
The politicians who filed the libel case become the objects of derision and public contempt.
If a public official’s attention is being called over a possible impropriety while in public office, he must submit to the critical news or commentary however bombastic may be the method used by the press, as long as it doesn’t breach the public official’s private life.
This hinges on the principle that a public office is a public trust.
-o0o-
It’s because of the libel case’s imprisonment clause why we, the Ilonggo community journalists, as well as our colleagues in other parts of the Philippines, have been in the front-line campaigning since after the EDSA Revolution or during the time of President Corazon Aquino to decriminalize libel.
Our campaign in the period between 1989 until 1998 and most recently, included regularly pressing during chance “ambush” interviews and press conferences former senators Joey Lina, the late Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Nikki Coseteng, the late Raul Roco, among other national legislators to pass a bill in congress to make a drastic change for libel law in the Philippine penal code.
No political figure has publicly said no and they all promised to initiate steps to decriminalize libel.
Until now, however, their promises have remained a promise.
Until our colleague, Maria Ressa, chief executive officer of the confrontational Rappler, was recently arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila for cyber libel case, another libel dog with a different collar.
We are confident Ms Ressa will be able to survive this latest attempt to gag and muzzle the press in the Philippines.
No matter how they try to camouflage the issue, it’s a clear case of harassment and intimidation.
We shall continue to advocate for the change of the libel law in the Philippines, and to vigorously fight for press freedom even under a despotic regime with low regard for freedom of the press and expression.
“Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it.”
-- Trey Parker
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The late Judge Rita Bascos-Sarabia was a councilor in Iloilo City in the Philippines when she and another city councilor, former City Prosecutor Jose Junio Jacela, volunteered to defend me in court pro bono against the libel cases filed by a group of politicians in 1999, or about 20 years ago.
They approached me like true Christians offering their sincere legal services.
I didn’t have any prior acquaintances with both city officials aside from listening to them debate with fellow city councilors in their regular sessions at the Sangguniang Panlungsod every Wednesday afternoon as a city hall beat reporter.
But Judge Rita and Fiscal Jacela were some of the many Ilonggos who believed in me; they were at the frontline doing their darn best to ensure that an innocent journalist wouldn’t spend a minute in jail.
Prior to the sensational litigation, they were among those who regularly read the columns and the news I wrote in Sun Star Iloilo Daily; they were convinced of my absolute innocence.
They sacrificed precious hours and resources, and collaborated like clinical surgeons saving the life of a terminally ill patient.
-o0o-
I watched in awe while listening to these topnotch lawyers convince the court of my innocence as an accused in at least 38 counts of libel, a bundle of criminal cases “too good to be true” owing to its abundance (I will write a separate story about this).
One time, I felt guilty while watching Judge Rita undergo arrest proceedings inside the Hall of Justice after a trial judge in another branch meted her with a “contempt of court” and ordered her arrest for missing another hearing not related to my cases.
Because of the large number of cases Judge Rita was handling in the morning, sometimes we had to hop from one branch to another like airport passengers scrambling to locate the boarding gates in the eleventh hour.
Judge Rita and Prosecutor Jacela were so determined to win our cases that they never showed signs of weariness and boredom as the hearings prolonged, prompting some court personnel to refer to them as the “Wonder Woman” and the “Bionic Man.”
Before the Bionic Man became a city legal officer under the administration of Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and before the Wonder Woman was assigned in Makati City, all the libel cases filed against me, my late former publisher Marcos “Mark” Villalon, and columnist Wenceslao “Mat” Mateo, Jr. have been dismissed.
-o0o-
Judge Rita did something special that will forever be etched on my memory.
Sometime in June 2001, or several weeks after the May 14, 2001 elections, newly elected Iloilo Vice Governor Roberto “Obet” Armada passed by in the coffee shop of Iloilo City’s Amigo Terrace Hotel and saw me together with now Prosecutor Carol Salvatierra and now Public Attorney Office (PAO) lawyer Gerlie Uy while we were having an editorial meeting for our Iloilo Today publication.
We congratulated the smiling Vice Governor Armada, after which he immediately told me: “Ti, join ka na sa akon office. Kinahanglan ko ang writer (Come and join in my office now. I need a writer).”
I didn’t believe the vice governor was serious about the invitation when I nicely declined his offer right in that moment until Judge Rita entered the picture several days later.
Judge Rita, then a city councilor and coming out from her City Hall office on her way to Vice Governor Armada’s office in the Capitol, “kidnapped” me while I was gathering stories in the City Hall.
To make the long story short, we ended up inside the vice governor’s office where I was “formally” introduced to all and sundry as Vice Governor Armada’s new “staff member.”
I realized that Mrs. Ana “Ting Ting” Abogado-Armada, the vice governor’s wife, was Judge Rita’s cousin.
I learned furthermore that both Vice Governor Armada and Judge Rita have been my avid readers; and they both believed in me.
I never failed them, I was confident.
I will miss you, Judge Rita Bascos-Sarabia, my great lawyer and my “Wonder Woman”, our “Wonder Woman”. Thank you for believing in me.
You left us too early, but I know that we shall meet again in God’s time and kingdom.
(Judge Rita Bascos-Sarabia succumbed at the Western Visayas Medical Center past 9 o’clock evening on Dec. 26, 2018 from complications from an infection of her exposed wounds caused by explosion from a gas leak in an LPG tank. She is survived by her husband, Atty. Rene, and children, Katherine, Ina and Rex. Her wake is at the Gegato-Abecia Funeral Services in Coastal Road, Iloilo City. Viewing started on December 29, 2018. She will be buried on January 6, 2019.)
