Thursday, February 15, 2007 Newspaper publisher, 2 columnists sued for sedition
THE Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday filed criminal charges against Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho-Olivares and two other columnists before the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) in connection with the publication of several articles allegedly intended to incite the public to rebel against the government.
Senior State Prosecutor Phillip Kimpo has issued a resolution finding probable cause against respondents Olivares, Ike Señeres and Herman Tiu-Laurel for inciting to sedition, citing the "inextricably interwoven" seditious statements and scurrilous libels that they wrote against the government.
"It is given that the herein respondents have not participated directly in any public tumultuous uprising. However, reading of the articles written by respondents reveals some grossly or obscenely abusive libels against the government and its officials," Kimpo said. A bail of P12,000 each was recommended for the temporary liberty of the accused.
Kimpo said the alleged seditious statements of respondents "placed the present government in a perilous coarse situation by tending to instigate the public to cabal, to meet together to an unlawful purpose, to uprise, to damage and prejudice of the duly constituted authorities and citizens of the Republic."
"After a careful perusal of the facts and circumstances of the case and evidence submitted by both parties find the existence of probable cause to hold for trial all respondents for the crime of inciting to sedition under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code," he said.
In the complaint filed by the DOJ against the accused, Kimpo said Olivarez, Señeres and Laurels seditious articles "tend to lead or stir up the people against the lawful authorities, namely, the President of the Philippines and disturb the peace of the community."
Olivarez, Señeres and Laurel maintained that their articles are not seditious and that they cannot be held liable for what they wrote because they are just doing their job and their right to freedom of expression.
In their counter-affidavit, Olivarez, Señeres and Laurel said the charges against them were a form of "prior restraint."
However, this was not given credence by Kimpo saying that freedom of expression are not immune to regulation by the State in the exercise of its police power.
"It is fundamental that these freedoms are not immune to regulation by the State in the exercise of its police power, as significantly, the Bill of Rights itself does not purport to be an absolute guaranty of individual rights and liberties. Even liberty itself, the greatest of all rights, is not unrestricted license to act according to one's will. It is subject to the far more overriding demands and requirements of the greater number," Kimpo said.
Kimpo however admitted that in reality, the laws punishing the crimes of libel and slander and inciting to sedition have never been seriously and successfully questioned.
"For these laws are valid exercises of police power. Clearly, there is no prior restraint or censorship being addressed to respondents. However, it could not be gainsaid that they could not be punished, as the freedom from subsequent punishment is not unqualified for they may be regulated in matters of public interest," Kimpo said.
Kimpo said the accused has "continuously maligned and undermined the present administration for it is a given fact that the legitimacy issue had long been settled by the decision of the Supreme Court and of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, wherein every chance and opportunity were given to assail the same."
He said Olivares even inflicted disenchantment against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Congress and the Supreme Court (SC) by insinuating that they no longer deserve the respect, trust and confidence of the Filipino people.
Kimpo said cited that in the article Frontline written by Olivares dated Dec. 11, 2005, she stated that the military willfully engages in illegal activities and follows illegal orders from the Commander-in-Chief.
He said Olivares categorically stated that the incumbent president is a bogus president.
In the same column, she also supposedly maligned then Armed Forces chief Generoso Senga by saying that he was unprofessional and protector of criminals in the military establishment.
In her Jan. 5, 2006 column entitled illegal chain of command, the respondent reiterated her previous statements on her Dec. 11, 2005 column that the military was corrupt and unprofessional together with the Commander-in-Chief. After clearly printing said statements, she concluded that they did not deserve the respect of the sovereign people, Kimpo pointed out.
Señeres, in his column, called Arroyo as a "bad girl, that she was continuing what her cheating spree and stole the credit from the Overseas Filipino Workers by claiming that she was the cause of the upsurge of the peso."
This was reiterated in his Dec. 6, 2005 and Jan. 26, 2006 columns entitled, wherein he stated that the President committed too many wrongs and that the Filipinos already believed that it was right to oust her. In addition, he had written other vulgar libels against the constituted authorities as evidenced by the newspapers submitted by the herein complainant.
Laurel, in his column dated Jan. 23, 2006, wrote that Arroyo bribed her way out of the impeachment and her enforcers used police brutality and she had cheated in the election.
"It is thus an unconcealed fact that their columns would certainly produce disaffection and discontentment to the people and would undermine the stability of the government. Much less, it might also create a feeling of hate and dissatisfaction against the government," Kimpo said. (ECV/Sunnex)
