URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan – A local court last week fined three journalists P6,000 each after they were convicted of libel filed by a mayoral candidate in Asingan town five years ago.

In a 17-page decision on November 27, Regional Trial Court Judge Teodorico Alfonso Bauzon also ordered Victor Corpuz Jr., Daniel Calixto Custodio and J.D. Villafuerte to pay P500,000 in moral damages to the complainant, Abraham Divina Jr., who ran for mayor of Asingan in 2004.

Corpuz was the publisher-editor of the defunct Headline Balita, a weekly newspaper in Pangasinan, while Custodio and Villafuerte were its associate publisher and executive editor, respectively.

The paper stopped publication after Villafuerte’s death in 2005.

Divina, a retired director of the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) Bureau of Equipment, had accused Corpuz, Custodio and Villafuerte maligning him after their newspaper published a story that accused him of corruption.

During the trial, Divina admitted that during his employment with the DPWH, he was among those charged in a “vehicle repair scam” under the doctrine of command responsibility.

But he was eventually cleared of the criminal and administrative charges by the Ombudsman and by the Office of the President, respectively.

“Certainly, when the … article was written and published in the May 3-10, 2004 issue of Headline Balita, there was no factual basis in calling [Divina] as a ‘corrupt DWPH official’ or one who steal[s] from the coffer[s] of the government,” Bauzon said in his decision.

The judge also noted that copies of the newspaper and photocopies of the story were distributed in various polling places in Asingan town during the May 2004 elections.

“This being the case, it was obvious that the writing and publication of the libelous article was not meant to be in response to a duty to educate or guide the electorate during the 2004 elections… but was [prompted] by a desire to impeach or injure the reputation, integrity and honesty of [Divina],” Bauzon said.