MANILA – A prosecutor in General Santos City has dismissed a libel suit filed by an associate of boxing icon Manny Pacquaio against a local journalist for lack of convincing proof.
Prosecutor Jose Blanza Jr. cleared journalist Edwin Espejo after the complainant, Mohamad Aquia, former head of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group in Central Mindanao, failed to provide “convincing proof” of malice.
Espejo is a correspondent for various media outfits including NewsBreak, MindaNews and ASian Correspondent.
“There is no convincing proof presented by complainant showing that respondent was actuated by the desire to impeach his integrity and reputation,” Blanza said in his eight-page resolution.
Lawyers Harry Roque and Rommel Bagares, representing Espejo, said that the the suit should be dismissed because it goes against the recent view of the UN Human Rights Committee that criminal libel in the Philippines conflicts with human rights guarantees on free expression.
The two lawyers also maintained that current definitions of libel in Philippine law does not yet cover online publications and that Aquia is a public figure whose doings are subject to fair comment and reportage.
The lawyers added that Espejo merely reported on what police said about the complainant’s alleged criminal activities.
Aquia slapped Espejo with an P18 million libel suit for allegedly accusing him in an article published online of heading a carjacking syndicate and seeking refuge in Pacquiao’s house in General Santos to escape police.
Blanza, however, agreed with the journalist’s defense, saying that the allegedly libelous article he wrote about Aquia merely restated or reported on the pronouncements of the Highway Patrol Group about the complainant’s alleged involvement in a car syndicate.
Pacquiao, also a representative of Saranggani Province, also has a pending P75 million libel complaint against Espejo stemming from the same article.(Dennis Carcamo)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=829149
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