MANILA, Philippines–Former Makati Vice Mayor Roberto Brillante has been ordered to pay P500,000 in damages to Vice President Jejomar C. Binay after a court found him guilty of libel.
In a June 30 decision released only recently, Judge Selma Palacio Alaras of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 62 said that Brillante “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously” disseminated a defamatory statement that caused “dishonor, discredit and public contempt” to Binay.
This was after he accused the then Makati mayor in a press statement of bribing three Sandigan justices to dismiss the graft case pending against his wife, Elenita, also a former Makati mayor.
The graft case was filed against Elenita and nine other people by Brillante. The Sandiganbayan, however, dismissed the case against Elenita for lack of probable cause in 2006, prompting Brillante to issue a press statement that the justices were bribed by Binay who later sued him for libel.
According to the court, Brillante showed malice, a critical element in libel cases, when he “made such remarks with [the] knowledge that [these were] false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity thereof.”
“There must be some foundation [for the journalists’] reports; these reports must be warranted by facts,” it said.
“There was no showing that the accused made any attempt to talk to Binay to verify statements contained in the defamatory articles, especially considering the gravity of the accusations made against the latter,” the court added.
In 1993, Brillante was also fined P500,000 after he was found guilty of five counts of libel against Binay.–Kristine Felisse Mangunay