Trillanes found guilty of libel

MANILA, Philippines — A Makati court yesterday found former senator Antonio Trillanes IV guilty of libel for his statements in 2015 accusing then mayor Junjun Binay of bribing Court of Appeals (CA) justices to overturn his suspension order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Trillanes had linked Binay to the “justice for sale” issue.

Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 ordered Trillanes to pay Binay P500,000 in moral damages.

The former senator had alleged that two CA magistrates were bribed millions of pesos to stop the suspension order against Binay.

The court said Trillanes filed a resolution to probe Binay only after making the statements to the media.

Binay was suspended by the ombudsman in 2015 over the alleged overpricing of the Makati city hall’s new parking building.

Soriano, who previously junked the government’s bid to revive the coup d’etat case against Trillanes, imposed P100,000 fine on the former senator instead of jail time, based on a Supreme Court circular preferring imposition of fines in libel cases.