Court clears broadcaster of libel charges
CEBU, Philippines – The Regional Trial Court Branch 62 in Oslob town the other day acquitted a Cebu broadcaster of the libel charges filed against him by Malabuyoc Mayor Lito Creus and his wife Vice Mayor Daisy Creus.
In his eight-page decision, RTC Branch 62 Presiding Judge James Stewart Ramon E. Himalalon dismissed the libel cases filed by the couple against Apolinario "Jun" Arigo, Jr. because of the prosecution's failure to prove Arigo's guilt beyond peradventure of doubt.
The Creus couple filed separate libel cases against Arigo based on his broadcast over Station DYDD Bantay Radyo on July 5, 2003.
In their complaint, the couple, who at the time the incumbent mayor and vice mayor, respectively of Malabuyoc, alleged that sometime in the afternoon of July 5, 2003, Arigo, who is a freelance blocktimer and commentator of Bantay Radyo, uttered derogatory comments against them on air. Bantay Radyo's broadcasting network covers the Province of Cebu, Visayas and Mindanao.
The camp of the couple presented a copy of the broadcast, translated in English, of the accused.
Arigo, in his broadcast over Station DYDD, allegedly said: "Okay, our fellow brothers, the last few days we have mentioned the abusive mayors in the province of Cebu. We have Tata Abines from the Municipality of Oslob, Mayor Lito Creus from the Municipality of Malabuyoc. So far, I've seen him (Creus) as the most abusive."
The same translation of Arigo's broadcast and used by Creus as his evidence in court states: "But as I can see Mayor Lito Creus, you cannot be forgiven. You will be doomed to perdition because you are the worst, not only that you're abusing the human rights of the people of Malabuyoc, you have also committed corruption in the municipal-ity."
The same translations of the broadcast were also used as evidence in the case filed by Creus' wife.
Another broadcast made by Arigo also allegedly attacked Vice Mayor Creus per-sons saying, "Now, if this Lito Creus has an awful character, according to the maidser-vant who has been terminated, he's no match to the ugliness of Ma'am Day's trails (refer-ring to Mrs. Daisy Creus). Hey, Ma'am Daya, how are you? Your face is a lot sticky, he..he.. because you're eating a lot of fatty foods."
The camp of the Creus couple presented Leopoldo Yeban of the National Tele-communications Commissions to prove that the copy of the tape recording furnished by the radio station where Arigo made his broadcast was original.
But the court noted that the prosecution did not present in court the personnel of that particular radio station who made the tape recording.
The court said that at least the radio personnel could fill-in the gap of the testi-mony of Yeben.
Because of this, the court found that the tape recording inadmissible in evidence including its translations.
Mayor Creus admitted he did not heard personally Arigo made the statements, but a resident of his town, one Peregrina Allosada, was presented in court as testimonial wit-ness to the incident.
In the case filed by the vice mayor, the court found that there is no evidence on hand to prove that the accused uttered scurrilous statements over the radio against her.
Judge Himalalon, in his decision in acquitting Arigo said, "Every man has a right to discuss matters of public interest. A clergyman with his flock, an admiral with his fleet, as general with his army, a judge with his jury, we are, all of us, the subject of pub-lic discussion." (FREEMAN)
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