By Mortz C.
Ortigoza
My elementary
classmate Nathaniel “Ontoy” Fabila in Mindanao frantically called me last
Monday morning in Dagupan City if I know Northern Luzon Correspondent Frank
Cimatu of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI).
I told him
Cimatu was based at the Rappler.com Baguio City’s bureau – an almost two hour’s
ride from my city.
“Why you
called?” I posed to Ontoy, who is a radio bloc timer of Secretary
Manny Piñol of the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (DAF).
"Basaha bala ang Face Book's community page ni Sec Manny (Read the Face Book's community page of Secretary Pinol)," my classmate badgered me in Ilonggo.
"Basaha bala ang Face Book's community page ni Sec Manny (Read the Face Book's community page of Secretary Pinol)," my classmate badgered me in Ilonggo.
Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol |
When I browsed Piñol, a town mate, FB he was
pugnacious and was craving for Cimatu’s blood in a libel case he mulled to file
with his lawyer.
He posted that Cimatu’s post "Agri
Sec got rich by 21-M in 6 months. Bird Flu pa more” was a criminal
defamatory case.
Piñol stressed to exchanges with supporters
at his FB account and at Cimutu’s public FB where he argued with a Cimatu’s
friend, that the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) Report
was all about the Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) that
required public officials like him to file annually.
“The
PCIJ, in citing my case said: "Across a seven-year period, a fantastic
P21,956,632.23-increase was recorded in the net worth of Agriculture Secretary
Emmanuel Piñol, or from P3,643,000 in the SALN he filed as of Dec. 31, 2009, to
P25,599,632.23 in his latest SALN as of Dec. 31, 2016,” he said.
He cited that his assets and liabilities he
declared in 2016 SALN were consistent with his Income Tax Return (ITR) with the
Bureau of Internal Revenue he declared in 2015.
“In the period July 1 until today, there
were no P21-M added assets, either in money in the bank or in acquired
properties”.
A livid Piñol dished at Cimatu the
following: “Utterly careless and irresponsible as a journalist” “You
are nothing but dirty trash” “Ano ibig mo sabihin sa "bird flu
pa more?" Kumita ako sa bird flu? Napaka gago mo! Magkita nga
tayo para magkaalaman” since he could prove with evidences that he got a
P10 million loans from a bank to start poultry breeding business and earned a
profit in that six years period when he was out of the government.
Author poses with Rappler.com's correspondent Frank Cimatu (center) and Philippine Daily Inquirer's reporter Gabriel Cardinoza. Cimatu faces a Cyber -Libel Case from Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol. Photo taken during the 3rd Children Journalism Summit held at the sprawling air conditioned world class Stadia in Dagupan City. |
My First Impression
My first impression on Cimatu’s imprudence
was his patent irresponsibility in imputing maliciously that Piñol
pocketed that P21 million even the former Vice Governor of Cotabato Province
left his last government office in 2009.
“Was
he not thinking about the legal consequences of his blunder?” I asked myself.
I was sued with libel too by a member of the
Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Legislative Board) of Pangasinan but
unlike Cimatu I knew from the beginning that I have a legal ground against it
because I just quoted in my column “ORTIGOZA:
Are we criminally liablefor Libel?” the bravado of
another board member.
The legislature told me and three media men
that he was one of the few members of the Board who declined the P40 thousand
monthly payola from the maintainer of the illegal number game’s jueteng.
Piñol on his September 24 FB’s
post said that upon arrival from Hungary he would talk to his lawyer and file a
case at his residence in Kidapawan City, Cotabato Province.
“Malayo
ang Baguio City to Kidapawan City para sa arraignment and hearings,” I told friends in the Bangus City
after I arrived last Monday morning in a rough and tumble trips through
van, airplane, taxi, and bus from M’lang, Cotabato Province (20 minutes ride to
Kidapawan) to Dagupan City after I got my media award there, but that’s another
story.
My poser: Does Cimatu not only faces
a 4 years and 2 months to 8 years conviction with civil liabilities on the
moral damages he inflicted to the Secretary in Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime
Prevention Act of 2012) but will be forced to travel from his residence in the
Pines City to that Central Mindanao’s city?
Sued with felony son of a gun in Face Book
and not on his Rappler’s reporting, Cimatu would be obliged to travel round
trips in a hearing by shelling out roughly P7 thousand plane either in cheap
airlines and bus ticket rides every time the Office of the Prosecutor and later
the judge there calls him for a hearing.
And we are not yet talking about the
lawyer’s fee he coughs up every time he appears in those offices in Kidapawan.
But on the September 27 post of the
Secretary of DAF, I saw him with two of his lawyers filed the case at the
prosecutor’s office in Quezon City.
They probably read the jurisprudence on
Bonifacio vs. RTC of Makati (G.R. No. 184800, 5 May 2010) where the Supreme
Court said that If the offended party is a public official, the criminal case
can only be filed in either of two places, namely: (a) in the place (whether in
or outside Manila) where he holds office at the time of the commission of the
crime; or (b) where the alleged defamatory article was printed and first
published.
“Another
case, this time the civil aspect of the crime which would demand damages, would
be filed next week in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato,” the Secretary however posted last
September 27.
Lesson for Everybody
The Cimatu’s brouhaha would be a lesson to
us media practitioners and even those who unwarily post at social media Face
Book to practice prudence because Cyber Libel carries more weight than Ordinary
Libel. Ordinary Libel as seen on the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines
carries only up to prision correccional medium (2 years, 4 months and 1
day to 4 years and 2 months as seen on Article 355) jail time. But the convict
ain’t got to go to prison because of Probation Law if his or her conviction by
the RTC was a first offense. But the government is harsh on those convicted by
the Cyber Crime Law because he or she soldiers on till the Supreme Court
convicts or exonerates him.
If sentenced in a litigation that runs
to 10 to 15 years from the lower court to the SC, the accused would be “maghihimas
ng malamig na rehas” in the slammer in Muntinlupa that goes up to
eight years.
Deplorable!
(You
can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com.
You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento