BCDA chief indicted for P100-M libel for print ad

BAGUIO CITY—The P100-million libel complaint filed last year by real estate developer Robert John Sobrepeña against the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and its head, Arnel Paciano Casanova, for posting an Inquirer advertisement that allegedly maligned him and his business interests, has been transmitted to a Pasig regional trial court.

Joselito de Asas, a Pasig City assistant prosecutor, excluded Inquirer editors and officials from the suit.

Sobrepeña owns Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco), the developer of Camp John Hay which had been engaged in a debt feud with the BCDA throughout 2012.

Mediation

Last year, a Baguio court ruled that the BCDA and CJHDevco should settle their problems through a mediator, after the developer rescinded its lease agreement with the BCDA, prompting the agency to terminate the contract.

On April 10, 2012, the BCDA posted an advertisement addressed to unit owners of John Hay Manor, John Hay Suites as well as John Hay log homes and cottages, which said that the agency had sued CJHDevco for estafa after it released to the government what it believed to be a previously sold luxury cabin to partially settle its P2.9-billion debt.

The advertisement also alluded to allegedly questionable business practices being undertaken at the former American rest and recreation baseland.

Imputations

De Asas ruled that the BCDA advertisement “appears to be imputations of the commission of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary … which tend to injure the reputation or to diminish the esteem, respect, goodwill of confidence of the complainant (Sobrepeña).”

The advertisement, he said, “does not entirely contain matters concerning the status of CJHDevco, but also touches on the other business affairs of the complainant that do not seem germane to the position of CJHDevco.”

De Asas said the advertisement made references to Sobrepeña’s other companies, which placed “in a bad light the image of the complainant in the business sector.”

This is the second libel complaint filed against BCDA president Casanova and the BCDA board of directors.

Previous case

On June 21 last year, CJHDevco sued Casanova and the board, for libel at a Baguio regional trial court because of the advertisement.

But acting Baguio City Prosecutor Elmer Surot in November dismissed the complaint, saying the advertisement was “composed of facts based on public records and communications.”

“As such, malice could hardly be attributed to the respondents as the publication could not be described or considered as having been done with the knowledge that they are false,” Surot said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon