THE Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the reversal of a court ruling in favor of a Cebu-based broadcaster and columnist in relation to a libel charge filed by Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
In a decision promulgated on December 5, 2022 but was made public only on April 3, 2023, Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa said Leo Lastimosa “must perforce acquitted” noting there is reasonable doubt as to the element of identifiability which is necessary for libel suit to prosper.
"The Decision dated July 27, 2016 and Resolution dated August 2, 2017 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CEBCR No. 02233 are hereby reversed and set aside. Accordingly, petitioner Leo A. Lastimosa is acquitted of the crime charged. Let entry of judgment be issued immediately," the order reads.
Garcia’s complaint against Lastimosa is in relation to his column published in The Freeman entitled “Si Doleng Kawatan” (translation: Doling the thief).
Lastimosa described Doleng as “fishmonger, thief, vindictive, ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, and cruel.”
Garcia said she felt like she was the one referred to in the article "with malicious intent of exposing her (Garcia) to public contempt and ridicule[,] did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously compose, prepare, write, publish, and cause to be composed, prepared, written, and published."
The complaint was filed at the Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 which favored Garcia.
The RTC ordered Lastimosa to pay P2 million as moral damages and P6,000 fine.
Lastimosa elevated the decision to the Court of Appeals which affirmed the RTC ruling putting the moral damages amount to only P500,000 instead of P2 million.
However, the SC said “there is no third person who presented that established beyond reasonable doubt that “Doling” and Garcia are the same person.”
“Neither do Lastimosa's previous articles sufficiently establish the said fact, for they are not the articles subject of this libel case, and it does not necessarily follow that because he had previously written about Garcia that the latter would automatically be the subject of the article in question,” the order reads.
“In other words, that ‘Doling’ refers to Garcia is not a logical conclusion of the fact that Lastimosa had previously written about Garcia,” it added. (SunStar Philippines)