Supreme Court: Journalists in libel case guilty, may pay lower fine

As journalists’ groups push for the passage of a bill that would decriminalize libel, the Supreme Court has upheld its guilty verdict on the owner and former staffers of the defunct Manila Chronicle in a libel case filed by Alfonso Yuchengco, directing them to pay the business tycoon and former ambassador  P38.5 million in damages.

In affirming its 2009 ruling, the high tribunal denied for lack of merit Yuchengco’s petition seeking the reinstatement of the Makati City Regional Trial Court ruling which granted his P101-million damage demand against the journalists and Manila Chronicle owner Roberto Coyiuto Jr.

“In the case at bar, the amount of damages was reduced precisely after the court had considered the particular circumstances surrounding the case, the financial and social stature of the parties, and the degree of suffering caused to petitioner,” the  court said in its decision dated March 30.

Yuchengco, who sued the journalists for calling him a Marcos crony and a corporate raider in several articles in 1994, had claimed that the high tribunal’s earlier ruling reducing the amount of damages was “unwarranted.”

Aside from Coyiuto, also found guilty of libel were former Chronicle staff members Thelma San Juan, Neal Cruz, Noel Cabrera, Gerry Zaragoza, Donna Gatdula, Rodney Diola and Raul Valino.

San Juan and Cruz are now lifestyle editor and an opinion columnist, respectively, of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

In its two-page resolution, the high court said Yuchengco failed to prove “any error in the wisdom of the decision” it issued three years ago, which overturned the ruling of the Court of Appeals junking Yuchengco’s civil suit against Coyiuto et al.

The Supreme Court said the failure of the journalists to seek Yuchengco’s reaction before the articles were published was “fatal” to their claim of innocence.

In modifying the findings of the lower court, the high tribunal directed the journalists to jointly pay Yuchengco P2 million in moral damages and P500,000 in exemplary damages.

Coyiuto, on other hand, was ordered to pay the former ambassador P25 million in moral damages and P10 million in exemplary damages.

They were also ordered to jointly and severally settle Yuchengco’s P1 million legal expense.

Originally posted: 8:57 pm | Sunday, April 1st, 2012