Shield Law Does not Protect Radio Announcers on Libel

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

My radio announcer friend’s Harold Barcelona called me by phone telling me he and a radio tandem at DWPR in Dagupan City would be sued with libel by a government official.

“Ano ang sinabi ninyo at kakasuhan kayo?” I posed.

He answered that in his scathing passion he told the public that the official furnished the tiles of his house with those intended for a government building.

His tandem Sammy Lusalla joined him in opining about the alleged corruption of the government brass.

Photo credit: Techinasia

I told him if they have evidence to back up their accusation the case will be dismissed later by the judge of the Regional Trial Court. If they have none, they go to jail and serve the eight years’ jail time for cyber libel after their conviction.

The seasoned radio man Harold knew about the ordinary libel because when I exposed the members of the Provincial Board more than a decade’s ago as recipient of P40,000 a month each payola from the maintainer of the illegal numbers’ game jueteng he was the guy I asked with intrepidity to distribute my newspaper’s Northern Watch to the offices of the local legislature

“Pare, tutuluyan ka daw nila,” he said to me through phone about the livid deputados and their vice governor and their plan to charge me in court with written defamation.

I told Harold then that libel based on the Revised Penal Code did not threaten me.

“Six years below lang ang kulong niyan. Sa Probation Law natin pag Prision Correctional puweding e apply ng probation walang kulong walang record iyan pag na convict ako. E di ako ma ku-convict diyan kasi my source – with witnesses to back it up – was their fellow member”.

That case was eventually dismissed by the RTC Judge.

I told him that his and Sammy’s predicaments were more serious because if the complainant and his witness complained at their affidavit that they hear through the social media like Facebook the libelous remarks about the tiles – it would be Cyber Libel for them.

Proceeding from the definition of libel under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, Cyber Libel cyber is defined as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead, and committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.

Since their program is a bloc time – where they promote the stocks of their patron politician and hit his opponents – they ask their benefactor to shoulder the acceptance fee of the private lawyer that runs to tens of thousands of pesos.

Not to mention each appearance at the prosecutor's office of their legal counsel to answer the complaint affidavit of the complainant and his witnesses and monthly hearing in the RTC that will bill them with few thousands of pesos.  

“Puwede rin kayo kumuha ng libre na abogado sa PAO (Public Attorney’s Office). Pero madaming kasong hinahawakan iyon baka matuluyan kayo makulong kayo sa kaso niyo dahil walang probation iyan,” I told him.

Harold and Sammy are one of the many media men in my province that faces Cyber Libel cases in this acrimonious nasty May 9, 2022 national and local election because of their “odium and opprobrium”.

(Click here to see who are those other reporters who brace for charges with this criminal offense)

 Whether they have done their craft in good faith that will entail dismissal later from the court, these brothers and sisters in the profession however should remember that they should be prudent on what they remark on air.

Radio announcer has limited protection than newspaper reporter. The latter can cite the Shield Law or Republic Act No. 1477 to avoid being sued or chalk up dismissal of the case from the court.

It says “Without prejudice to his liability under the civil and criminal laws, the publisher, editor, columnist or duly accredited reporter of any newspaper, magazine or periodical of general circulation cannot be compelled to reveal the source of any news-report or information appearing in said publication which was related in confidence to such publisher, editor or reporter unless the court or a House or committee of Congress finds that such revelation is demanded by the security of the State (Section 1)”.

Shield Law is the Philippines copycat – just like our Libel - of United States’ law.

(READ my blog on Shield Law here)

The lawyer of the newspaper reporter can just ask the prosecutor or the judge to dismiss the case because it is “privileged” due to the Shield Law.

Mayorship Bet Calls Rival “Tandang”, Himself “Matador”

MOST AWAITED SUAL POLL

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SUAL, Pangasinan – Seasoned politician former Congressman Jesus “Boying” Celeste described himself as a matador (bullfighter) pitted to the less experienced tandang (rooster) in the most sought fight of the 2022 mayoral election the whole province of Pangasinan waited with interest.

The rooster the former solon dubbed is incumbent Mayor Liseldo “Dong” Calugay – who is serving his first term as the chief executive of the local government unit here.

“At ang gusto ko ring malaman ninyo magmula ng dumating kami rito sa inyong bayan. Nakatutok po lahat ang inyong probinsiya Pangasinan sa laban na ito sa ngalan ng pulitika. Ito po ang pinapanood nilang laban dahil ako po ang lalaban kung baga hindi po sa pagdadala ng sariling bangko ang kalaban ko po tandang ako po ang matador experienciado,” he told the bevy of applauding supporters who attended his consultation at the congressional office here of his younger brother First District Rep. Arnold “Noli” Celeste.

A matador (bullfighter) (left, photo) and a tandang (fighting cock).

In the 2019 mayoralty election this town was tagged by the Commission on Election as hotspot where one of its grounds was the assassination of Barangay Sto. Domingo Chairman Romulo Agbayani through a .45 caliber hand gun in front of his house by motorcycle men riding in tandem.

Former Mayor Roberto ”Bing” Arcinue, an ally of the Celeste, described the dangerous situations like menacing men wearing black jackets roamed gung-ho on their two-wheel vehicle in the nineteen villages of the coastal town instilling fear to his supporters.

“Somebody wanted to paint my town as chaotic. One of my village chiefs was assassinated last June (2018) without even a known reason,” former Mayor Arcinue said.

A pugnacious Celeste warned Calugay that any harm his supporters could inflict to his believers he would courageously deal.

 “Kung gagalaw sila na anuhin nila kami talagang lalabanan ko sila”.

He said he would not allow to happen to his supporters what the advocates of his rival had done in the 2019 election, he said in a radio interview.

In November 2021, a giant indignation rally ensued here. It was participated by three thousand residents after the application of a half-a –billion pesos’ loan of the mayor and members of the legislature of this one of the country’s richest towns was approved by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

“Alam ninyo po at alam po nating lahat na ang pera na iyan ang walang patutunguhan. Pag iyan po ang ni release po ninyo. Ang kawawa po ay ang taong bayan ng Sual,” Leeward Caburao – the leader of the demonstrators and a candidate for the legislature under Celeste – articulated to the media the people’s opposition to the decision of the LBP about the irony of the P500 million debt. This despite the almost four hundred million budget this town derived from local and national taxes and appropriated them to its yearly budget.

The 1,000 MW Sual Coal-fired Thermal Power Plant hosting town was ranked No. 2 richest in 2017 among the 1,488 municipalities in the Philippines.

In 2020, Cmci.dti.gov.ph however did not include the LGU as what it titled the Top 10 richest municipalities in the Philippines.

Since the almost three years' term of Calugay started in 2019, critics have accused his administration of incompetence.

With the consummation of the half-a-billion pesos’ loan, this town – Celeste’s supporters aver - will further recede to her glorious rank as one of the richest towns in the Philippines because the significant part of its collected revenues like the P200 million a year business and property taxes from the power plant and the P150,000 national and local taxes will be used for the yearly amortization of the loan.

The vice mayoralty tandem of Celeste is Councilor John Christopher Arcinue. He is the grandson and son of the former two mayors here. He is pitted with Vice Mayor Dioneil Caburao who is running in this year's poll under Mayor Calugay.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

I lost my watch in a Davao City’s taxi

One of the Best Experiences in My Life

 

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I have to burn my Bob Woodward's non- fiction thick covered book collections mostly about the stints of U.S Presidents and government top honchos. I just found last night termites infesting, impregnating, and gnawing the covers and pages of these hardbound.

Without doing that ultimate solution, these pests will be consuming the hundreds of my mostly political books in my library and eventually gnawing the valuable wood parts of my abode.

If I was not wrong, I have 20 collection of Woodward's hardcovers. He was the Washington Post’s correspondent in the early 1970s who exposed President Richard Nixon's corruption in the Watergate Scandal.

A friend in the United States sent me this year a copy of Woodward’s blockbuster's Peril. It was a collaboration with Robert Costa.

One of the contents of PERIL – and the authors’ prologue that perked up the excitement if not curiosity of readers -  was about a U.S General who during the last days of President Donald Trump called his Chinese counterpart to warn China incase "Nutcase Donald Duck" ordered the Generals to nuke out to smithereens, Jezz, the Chinks.

Glued on my laptop last night watching the first two hours of the eight hours’ documentary of the Beatles how they rehearsed, jammed, and composed new songs with urgency for a concert to be held on the roof top of a building dubbed as Get Back. It was relishing - as if seeing up close and personal- their demeanours. I saw John Lennon belted "Jealous Guy" with different lyrics and Paul McCartney sang as warm up “Another Day”. Those two songs did not become part of their second to last album's Let It Be. They became their single after the Fabulous Four parted ways in 1969.

Here’s the introduction of the docu: But when director Peter Jackson was asked a few years ago by the surviving Beatles to revisit the footage shot for Let It Be, and cut it into an all-new documentary, he combed through more than 60 hours of video and 150 hours of audio, and found an altogether different story. This was not the Beatles in misery, he told reporters—this was the Fab Four laughing, reconnecting, rehearsing not just the songs for Let It Be but half of Abbey Road and many numbers that would go on to dot John, Paul, and George’s solo records".

***

This how the Beatles especially Lennon and McCarthy composed a song. In their session they saw a newspaper banner story about a member of the Parliament who wanted to stop the migration in Great Britain of Pakistanis, Indians, and people from the Commonwealth.

The salient features of that phenomenon:

- Recorded January 9, 1969 during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions;

- Enoch Powell was a conservative member of Parliament and gave a fear baiting speech about if they allow immigration from the British Empire Commonwealth countries, the whites would soon be in the minority. This was obviously on the Beatles minds at the time when they did this mocking song about him and the people who believe these things;

Political writer Mortz C. Ortigoza - the writer of this article - who hailed from the Philippines belts in this video "A Day in the Life". It is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as the final track of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the verses were mainly written by John Lennon, with Paul McCartney primarily contributing the song's middle section. (Wikipidea)

- Many long-time Beatles fans are already familiar with this, but for anyone having a negative misunderstanding of this song, watch this video to understand what was going on with late 60's;

***

My answer will be "Disagreed" too!

When the two hosts and a male guest of CNN's New Year Special were asked: If you watched the eight hours new TV documentary about the 60 hours’ video footage of the Beatles composing, rehearsing, and preparing their rock songs mostly seen in the albums Let It Be and Abbey Road, was John Lennon's then GF Yoko Ono the main factor that saw the Fabulous Four broke out?

The three showed their "Disagree Cards".

With my link on that flicks where I saw the spirited demeanors of the four while doing antics and play their stuffs, I saw there too in that 16 session days that the presence of Yoko, Linda McCartney and five-year-old daughter Heather goofing around and Ringo Star's wife were welcome sight. John and Yoko sometimes dances while the Beatles and other players like keyboard genius Billy Preston play.

Damn, going to watch again the three series films since I felt I'm a kibitzer while they play their old rock classics that made them the undisputed No. 1 Rock Band in the world.

The discontent of George Harrison who said his songs and guitar styles have been disputed by Paul McCarthy - who had a commanding presence in that docu - caused -as one of the major factors - the dismemberment of the group. He even left the session for three days prejudicing the rooftop video and audio recording of the various songs dubbed as Get Back.

 Japanese Yoko Ono (left) in a huddle with American magazine photographer Linda Eastman - the wife of the "second boss" of the Beatles British Paul McCartney  - while the band in the background rehearsed in a studio for their impending recording of new rock songs).

This newly found 60 hours’ video footages of the unguarded Beatles in sessions have been the best experiences of my five decades of life on this earth. My first encounter with the Fab Four was in the early 1980s when I bought their bootleg cassette tape’s Hard Days Night sold at the Barter Trade in Zamboanga City in the Southern Philippines during the furlough of my military father.

I later discovered that they have more scintillating albums like the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, White Album, Let it Be, and Abbey Road- their last album before they broke out in 1969.

The last song their The End in Abbey Road was heart wrenching as the melody and the lyrics primordially done by McCartney epitomized the classics composed by these four British teenagers in their almost one-decade collaboration that had to be ended at the disappointment of their fanatics.

"The End" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was composed by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles, and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. The song features one of the few drum solos recorded by Ringo Starr. (Wikipidea)

Most Expensive Gov'ship Election Looms

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I asked a former member of Congress who is connected with the Opposition in a province how much was given to each of the mayors and those candidates for the same post in a meeting for their pledged of support to Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte for President and Vice President.

“Tag fifty thousand pesos,” he said.

I asked him because I was curious how much the moneyed supporter of the candidate for the governor has been using his affluence to maintain the loyalty of these hizzoners and those wannabes and how much his “hatred” to unseat come May 9, 2022 the family who perennially governed the local government unit of the province.

My source told me that as an initial contribution to the provincial venture of the governorship bet, this man shelled out three hundred million pesos as hustings expenses.

“Paggumastos iyan ng one billion pesos at ang kandidato niya ay gumasto ng kahating bilyon, may tama ang kalaban diyan,” I opined.

 Unless the incumbent has the same amount or can eclipse the sums I mentioned above, he will find himself and his family in defeat.

This was worsened when the Opposition fielded “marquee” opponents to challenge family members and allies in the next year’s electoral derby.

This will be the most expensive election the people in this province could witness if my hypothesis on the P1.5 billion wherewithal, campaign chest, or whatever is correct.

***

This backer of the Opposition is indeed a multi-millionaire. His generosity is a legend. A former mayor – who has a checkered past - told us media men that he was asked by a swaggering reporter to visit this Man.

“Noong una nahihiya pa ako kasi dati kaming Mayor pero mapiliit ito dahil kaibigan niya daw,” he referred to the reporter.

When they went home after exchanging pleasantries with the Moneyed Man they opened the envelopes containing the dough given by the host.

“Sa kanya five thousand pesos sa akin one hundred thousand (pesos),” he amusedly told us.

***

The Moneyed Man is opulent. He is one of the richest men in the huge province. His businesses and ventures are in and out of the country. His latest endeavor is a billion U.S dollar power plant.

Many pundits believed his interferences in this May 2022 election gives a lot of headaches to the political status of the Incumbent.

***

Oh by the way, I asked the former Congressman if his sports utility vehicle (SUV) is a U.S made and if it is bullet proof.

He answered my two posers in the affirmative.

“Kayo lang ata ang may ganito na brand na nakikita ko sa international movies sa probinsiya?” I asked.

He said there are only two: Him and the Moneyed Man.

Politician Crows to Win Polls at P10K Per Voter

 

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The gall of this mayoralty candidate telling the crowd in a hustings in the villages that despite being hated by many of her constituents she would still win the election at ten thousand pesos per head vote buy among the voters in the days before the election.

Gone are the days when our politicians were looked up by the masa as Statesmen. Politicians nowadays - whose wealth obviously came from corruption in public office - even crowed shamelessly their loot to the public.

Philippines politics goes to the dogs indeed. The more the Filipinos are mired in poverty the more they are vulnerable to the moneyed and not necessarily intelligent electoral candidates.

Image is internet grabbed.

Just watch how the members of the House of Thieves, er, Representatives in Quezon City debate. Only a few members of the more or less 300 Congressmen can argue intelligently about the bill one sponsors or the kind of questions being posed during a congressional investigation. Many of the members there are clowns. Many are sons and wives of those former “Clowngressmen” who finished their nine years’ term but their appetite to embezzle the public are insatiable.

I had coffee with pals in a mall where we talked about the political maneuverings of the two parties this early in a certain province.

I told them the candidate that can exceed the campaign funds especially the hundreds of millions if not billions of pesos intended for the pakurong (vote buying in the vernacular) wins the piece - prize of running a gargantuan governmental juggernaut whose perks and privileges are superior to other provinces.

“Walang malaking issue ngayon that the Opposition can exploit and belly up the incumbent kaya kuwarta ang pinaka factor in the victory of a certain bet that he can use to catapult himself to the perch of power,” I told them.

***

 A friend – who lives outside the province - asked me my take of a national official.

I told him the family is one of the richest in the region although he was involved in a corruption case before.

The friend told me that a supplier told him that this scion was the recipient himself of a ten percent S.O.P or cut of tens of millions of pesos of the hundreds of millions of pesos in this department.

“From the horse’s mouth, eh?” I told my friend about the knave in a money sleaze covered by the Anti- Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

“Yes, from the horse’s mouth,” my pal retorted.

Read my other blog/column:

Paano Magnakaw at Ma-Bunkrupt ang mga Pulitiko