MANILA, Philippines—Now that the Court of Appeals has permitted a Makati trial court to proceed with the case, the journalists who sued the President’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, over alleged press freedom violations now want to compel him to take the stand.

Lawyer Harry Roque, who represents the media practitioners, said he would ask Judge Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 143 to require the First Gentleman to testify in his own defense.

“Otherwise, he should waive his right to present further evidence, so we can proceed with our own set of witnesses,” Roque told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday.

Arroyo’s lawyer Ruy Alberto Rondain, however, said the move was “ridiculous” and had no basis in law. “He (Roque) cannot compel me to present my client as a witness. I decide who to present as my witness,” he said.

The complainants -- more than 30 individual journalists and three media organizations -- are seeking P12.5 million in damages from Arroyo for allegedly abusing his right to file libel cases against the media and, in effect, curtailing press freedom.

Arroyo has since dropped the libel cases after he underwent a risky heart operation, but the complainants said they wished to push through with their “social experiment” since the damage had been done.

The First Gentleman is in the middle of presenting evidence for his affirmative defenses, a legal proceeding that is tantamount to a motion to dismiss.

Previously, Rondain secured a court order requiring the complainants to produce all the stories they had written about Arroyo. Although Roque submitted some of the documents sought, Rondain said this was not all of them.

He asked Judge Laguilles to dismiss the suit on the grounds the complainants had failed to fully comply with the order.

But Roque said he would seek the termination of the affirmative defenses, considering the Court of Appeals ruling allowing the preliminary hearing and Arroyo’s apparent reluctance to testify in his own defense.

Roque said he was looking forward to calling to the stand some of the complainants, who include Inquirer columnists Conrado de Quiros and Ramon Tulfo, and representatives of media organizations Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.

In a September 22 ruling, the Court of Appeals dismissed Arroyo’s petition seeking to overturn the Makati RTC’s acceptance of the journalists’ amended complaint.

In his petition, Arroyo said the Makati RTC should not have admitted the amended complaint because the journalists had failed to pay the correct docket fee for the original complaint, which stated that they were seeking P12.5 million “each” in damages.

But the appellate court said the journalists who initiated the suit did not intend to avoid paying the right fee. It said the journalists paid the docket fee based on the amount assessed by the clerk of court.