CA affirms libel conviction vs Drilon's accuser
MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals upheld the local court’s conviction of former Iloilo government official who accused Sen. Franklin Drilon of corruption over the infrastructure projects in Iloilo.
The CA’s Second Division threw out Manuel Mejorada’s bid to overturn the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 118’s ruling which said that the court found him guilty of four counts of libel.
Last year, the Pasay court meted out a penalty of prision correctional or a medium period of two years and four months and one day up to four years and two months, as maximum, over a libel conviction.
The case covers Mejorada’s social media and blog posts where he linked Drilon to alleged anomalies in infrastructure projects in Iloilo, such as Iloilo Convention Center, Iloilo Circumferential Road in Ungka, Pavia and Guimaras Iloilo Parola Terminal Ferry Project.
The court noted that Mejorada, in his articles, “portrayed [Drilon] as intervening in various projects of Iloilo City, manipulating them and benefiting himself by unwarranted gains.”
“A cursory reading of these articles would show the intention of accused-appellant to injure the reputation, credit and virtue of Sen. Drilon and expose him to public hatred, discredit, contempt and ridicule,” the CA said.
“The subject articles are clearly not the fair and true reports contemplated by the provision. They provide no details of the acts supposedly committed by Senator Drilon but repeatedly accused him instead of manipulating the procurement process of the several projects,” the appellate court also said.
The Court also stressed that the matter of libel does not focus on what the writer means but “what the words used by him mean.”
“Words and phrases like ‘grandmother of all anomalies,’ ‘fat income for Mabilog and Drilon,’ ‘corruption at its worst’ and Drilon’s Midas Touch,’ are indisputably defamatory for they impute upon the senator a condition that is dishonourable and shameful, since they tend to describe him as a corrupt public official,” the court held.
Associate Justice Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla penned the decision. Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Franchito Diamante concurred with the ruling. — Kristine Joy Patag
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