Lawmakers eye class suit vs Inquirer

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 10 years ago

With many lawmakers complaining about being reported as having dealt with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, a member of the House on Wednesday suggested that they bring a class suit against the Inquirer.

MANILA, Philippines—With many lawmakers complaining about being reported as having dealt with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, a member of the House on Wednesday suggested that they bring a class suit against the Inquirer.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said the lawmakers, or the families of deceased House members whose names appear in the Benhur Luy files, could come together to file a common case against the Inquirer.

“We are thinking of a class suit,” Albano said in a press briefing of the House minority, but added that he had yet to discuss the idea with other lawmakers claiming innocence.

But House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora, a first-rate lawyer, shot down the idea of a class suit, saying the lawmakers named in the Luy files were not in the same situation.

Albano noted that only one newspaper was reporting on the Luy files, and deplored its headlines linking members of the House to the pork barrel scam.

Luy’s files part of evidence

The Inquirer has been publishing since last week the contents of the Luy files, which were given to the newspaper in April last year by the parents of Benhur Luy, the principal witness in the pork barrel scam case.

Luy’s parents asked the Inquirer for help in exposing a racket allegedly run by Napoles through which she siphoned off P10 billion from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) into the bank accounts of bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in connivance with members of the Senate and the House of Representatives over a period of 10 years.

Luy’s files—signed by the whistle-blower—are part of the evidence submitted by the National Bureau of Investigation to the Office of the Ombudsman, which has found probable cause to prosecute Napoles, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla and scores of former and current members of the House and former government officials for plunder, a nonbailable offense punishable by life imprisonment.

Appearing in the files are the names of more than 200 lawmakers, executive officials and supposed agents who allegedly had transactions with Luy, a former finance officer of Napoles, or with Napoles herself. According to those files, they received millions of pesos in kickbacks from phantom projects that Napoles’ bogus NGOs proposed for funding through the PDAF.

No deal with Napoles

The files included the name of Albano’s father, former Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano Jr., who said he had had no transaction with Napoles or Luy.

Several other lawmakers named in the files denied having done business with either Luy or Napoles and therefore had no involvement in the pork barrel scam.

“The headline looks bad. It refers to those involved in the Napoles racket. There was already a conclusion, there was no mention that it was alleged, it did not say this was suspicion. There was no verification, they just came out with it,” Albano said.

The Rules of Civil Procedure state that a class suit is brought when the subject matter of the controversy is one of common or general interest to people who are so numerous that it is impractical for all of them to bring action as individual parties; a number of them that the court finds sufficient may bring the suit for the benefit of all.

Albano said his idea was that the lawmakers who felt maligned could file individual libel cases in their districts. The cases could then be taken together for a class suit, he said.

“These would all be gathered. If they have the same complaints, that’s when the class suit would come in,” he said.

Different situations

But Zamora said class suits were “never a good solution” because for these to arise, the parties involved must have similar complaints, but those named in the pork barrel scam were not all in the same situation.

There are lawmakers who really committed wrongdoing, he explained. Some are innocent, and only their staff members are involved, he said.

And others are completely innocent, he added.

Zamora said it would be better if those who felt maligned would file individual libel cases against reporters, newspapers, publishers, the whistle-blowers, and other individuals involved in the scam.

Latest suggestion

Filing a class suit is the latest suggestion to arise from the House of Representatives to fight off the scandal caused by the disclosure of Napoles’ alleged racket last year.

Earlier, a lawmaker said he was thinking of reviving the right of reply bill to give public officials the chance to be able to respond to derogatory reports in the press and be given equal space or airtime.

Zamora said the controversy was an “unfortunate consequence” of the proliferation of lists of alleged pork barrel scam conspirators, with many lawmakers being lumped together as alleged conspirators, even if some of them are innocent.

“The problem is when you paint with too broad a brush and you end up listing 150, 200 names, then some members of Congress are going to complain and the way they’re going to fight back is instituting a right of reply,” he said.

But he added that the members of the minority were prepared to take a longer view and would rather approve a freedom of information bill without a right of reply provision.

Painful to Angaras

Aurora Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said it pained her to be named in a derogatory report because she and many people knew that she had not done anything wrong, that she had no spurious pork barrel transactions, and that she did not know Napoles or Luy.

Castillo also said her family was hurting, and that it was difficult to erase the negative impression created by the reports even if she could show that her PDAF dealings were aboveboard.