CEBU CITY – A veteran broadcaster who is also a newspaper columnist here sounded his impending arrest because of four libel cases filed by Ramon Miguel Osmeña, son of former Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Pablito Galeza Nalzaro, who writes a column Sunstar and sister publication, Superbalita, said the charges were filed at the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office. He said the court has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by his lawyer, Joan Baron, of JP Garcia Law Office, who is also the legal counsel of the Sunstar publication.
Nalzaro described the charges against him as “hazards of the profession.” “I am not saying that these cases constitute an attack on press freedom, but I can safely say without an iota of doubt and contradiction that facing these kinds of challenges are part of the so-called hazards of the profession. Sometimes, libel is being used as a tool to harass media people, as a way to silence them,” he said.
Nalzaro said the four libel cases filed against him consisted the “two counts of libel in violation of Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and another two counts in violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which punishes the crime of libel committed through the use of the internet and online.”
His columns in two newspapers were also published on its website. “Just in case warrants of arrest will be served, I need to post bail in the amount of P180,000. The bail for libel under the Revised Penal Code is usually set at P10,000 per count, but it is higher in the cyber-libel class, which is set at P80,000 per count. Even in penalty, cyber-libel is higher compared to libel case in the RPC,” he said.
Nalzaro said this has been the 30th libel case in his 39 years as a broadcast-journalist. However, all the other cases were dismissed either at the prosecutor’s office or by the courts. “My would-be arrest is timely when the Cebu broadcast industry is celebrating the Broadcasters’ Month and the Cebu media will be observing the annual Cebu Press Freedom Week on September 15 to 21,” said Nalzaro, who is a native of Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte province in Mindanao.
“These cases stemmed from the articles I wrote in this paper and in Superbalita about the alleged involvement of Ramon Miguel Osmeña, son of ‘has-been’ mayor Tomas Osmeña, in the illegal butane canister refilling business a year ago,” he said.
In the complaint, the younger Osmeña claimed he was maligned in the column written by Nalzaro and published in Sunstar and Superbalita last September 5 and 12 last year. The commentary entitled “Projecting a poor image” and “Mikakak man diay,” named him as a stakeholder of an alleged illegal butane canister refilling business owned by a former Osmeña ally.
The article was based on an incident where the Pari-an police CCTV showed the mayor allegedly intervening in the arrest of three butane canister traders. Media reports said he allegedly pressured the police for the release of the suspects, saying in later reports that he sympathized with the poor.
However, the columnist stood by the veracity of his information that the suspects were working with his son’s business, claiming that he was “able to secure the affidavit of Miguel’s former business partner who named him as one of those behind the business.”
That incident prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to order Regional Police Director Debold Sinas and then Cebu City Police Director Royina Garma to file charges against the mayor with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. Nalzaro said his camp will work for the consolidation of the four charges, as these were filed in two separate branches of the Regional Trial Court here. (John Rey Saavedra)
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