Libel-free

“WHEREFORE, THIS court hereby (a) provisionally dismisses the case; (b) orders the release of the cash bond…”

So ordered the Honorable Judge Jonel S. Mercado, RTC Branch 52 in Guagua town, of Criminal Case No. G-16-11638 – People of the Phil. vs. Diosdado “Ding” Cervantes Jr. y Cabrera, Caesar “Bong” Lacson y Zapata, and Eduardo Manugue y Guiao – on Aug. 12, 2020. Copies of which were released Aug. 25.

This dismissal arrived at after the complainant SPO3 Jimmy Santos failed to be present in the hearings scheduled July 29, Aug. 5, and Aug. 12, 2020, with Public Prosecutor Marlyds L. Estardo-Teodoro manifesting she was amenable to the provisional dismissal.

The brevity of the order totally belies the length of time the libel case took in court.

It was in Oct. 2015 that Santos filed a libel complaint with the Pampanga Prosecutors Office over the news story “2 Guagua cops under fire for hiding shabu evidence, acts of lasciviousness” inconspicuously published in page 2 of Punto’s Aug. 10-11, 2015 issue.

Written by Ding, it cited Manugue, identified as  provincial head of the Anti-Poverty Commission, as having accused Santos of keeping from the court one of three plastic sachets of shabu as evidence seized from a suspected drug dealer in a buy-bust operation and putting to personal use a vehicle impounded in the raid for use as evidence.

The complaint was brought to court in August 2016, at the RTC Branch 50 in Guagua town. There it remained virtually on “pre-trial” until Feb. 20, 2020 when the Honorable Judge Amor M.  Dimatactac-Romero inhibited herself from the case “to provide a clean slate for the parties to start with” citing the certiorari filed a year or so ago by the accused but dismissed by the Court of Appeals, whereby it was raffled off and landed at the RTC Branch 52.

What did not move – for a variety of reasons – for four years under one judge, was decided in three weeks by another judge. Quirks of justice, I just have to say. Especially given that the complainant, in all those four years, presented himself in court not more than three times.  

Long in coming, but the dismissal is finally here. And I cannot be any happier, consoled with the thought that it did not take another 20 years for this case to be resolved as the one previous to this had.

20 years ‘warranted’

Aye, I remember precisely praying for that with the dismissal of the first case coming immediately after I posted bail on the second. Writing here under the headline 20 years ‘warranted’ thus: Uh-oh, could have been speaking too soon. Yes, I have yet to be arraigned in one more libel case. Though I have already posted bail – P10,000 this time – to pre-empt the issuance of any warrant of arrest. Hopefully, this one won’t last another 20 years.

Criminal Case No. 97-149 for libel may be one for the books, if only for the 20 years it took for its resolution.

The case was filed in 1996 by one Rowena Domingo of the Mabalacat Water District over a Sun-Star Clark news story which exposed alleged cases of nepotism and abuse of authority in the managerial succession in the agency. Accused were publisher Joe Pavia, managing editor Ody Fabian, associate editor Bong Lacson, and of course the writer whose name I can’t immediately recall.

Immediate to the filing, veteran newsman Toy Soto brokered a meeting between us and the complainant where she said she would withdraw the case soonest. Taking her word, we did not present any counter-affidavits anymore and forgot all about the case.

In the course of time, Sun-Star Clark re-birthed itself as Sun-Star Pampanga in 2001. Ody died in February 2005, and Joe in 2011. Toy died in 2007, or thereabouts.

In November 2015, I was at the NBI applying for clearance pursuant to the renewal of my gun licenses when CC No. 97-149 surfaced in the agency’s records   with a corresponding alias warrant.

I had to rush to RTC 62 where my case was lodged, and posted the required cash bond of P2,000 for my provisional liberty. With RTC 62 designated a “drug court,” and me having not been arraigned yet, the records of my case were turned over to the Office of the Clerk of Court for re-raffle.

Atty. Rico

Initially assigned to RTC 60, CC No. 97-149 was – upon motion of my counsel Enrico P. Quiambao – re-raffled and landed at RTC 56 in April 2016. (Reminds me I haven’t thank Atty. Rico for being our counsel too in the case just dismissed).   

Right at the arraignment in June 2016, Rico made manifest the absence of the complainant and highlighted the number of years the complaint remained archived without any word from the complainant or her counsels. And moved for its dismissal.

WHEREFORE, this case is ordered DISMISSED against accused Caesar Lacson y Zapata for lack of interest to prosecute…

SO ORDERED. Given in open Court this 18^th day of August, 2016 in Angeles City.

Thus, the Honorable Irin Zenaida S. Buan, presiding judge of RTC Branch 56, in a single-page decision, thoroughly expunged any iota of guilt and definitively “unwarranted” an alias arrest order on my person.

The case that dragged on – absent my knowledge – for all of 20 years took but two hearings to be scratched off the court archives.

Two decades for one case. Four years and ten months for another. Why am I keeping my strong faith in our justice system?

Because the cases have been dismissed and I am exonerated. Duh!

Beyond that is my core belief that a libel case is par for the course in the journalism field.

It is the only legal recourse of the citizen who felt maligned in print, broadcast, or personal utterance, to seek redress for her/his grievance. Indeed, the exercise of a civil right in our democratic state.

It is precisely owing to this that I never begrudged all those people who took me to court for libel. Seven or eight, I have lost count.

I respected their right to seek my comeuppance for whatever perceived and felt wrong I did them. I respected them for their civility – of going the judicial course instead of taking the extra-judicial route with extreme prejudice… 

Ay, I think I have read that in one of my previous writings. Maybe, I can just look it up and reprint it here as supplementary to this piece.

In the meantime, let me savor that “libel-free” vibe after 24 long years. For who knows how short this will last.