Libel is just abused by officials

FIRST, I express my profound gratitude to National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), through its chairperson Rowena Paraan, for coming to my side in my hour of despair brought about by the diabolical arrest done on me by Manila Police District (MPD) warrant officers.

The fight for press freedom and my morale got a big boost from the act of NUJP in condemning the arrest for two (2) counts of libel in violation of the Memorandum of Agreement among the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Immigration, National Press Club (NPC), NUJP and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) providing for the non-implementation of arrest on Fridays and weekends.

I also thank Inquirer for publishing my plight so that the eyes of the public may be opened to this law that ironically compels the State to serve nothing but private interests of public officials.

This arrest is no less than another proof that libel law is just a tool of abuse by thin-faced public officials, like police Senior Inspector Rosalino P. Ibay Jr., who caused these two counts of libel that led to my malicious arrest.

Imagine that what I wrote was not libel in so far as Ibay is concerned. I only stated in my column Bulabugin that a team of policemen at a checkpoint caught a person for illegal drugs and a gun. This team released this person later without any charge filed. I also wrote that these cops were of the Don Bosco Police Detachment in Tondo, Manila and that the head of the same unit was Ibay. He however insisted he was no longer the head when this incident occurred. What then is libel here? Certainly, he was not defamed here. What then is the legal and moral ground of the Office of the City Prosecutor to conclude there is probable cause for two counts of libel when it is clearly not libel and when the same item published in Hataw and was published verbatim in another newspaper? What then is the legal and moral ground of Regional Trial Court of Manila, Branch 39, Judge Noli Diaz in approving the criminal information for two counts of libel and thereafter issue warrants for my arrest on 30 March 2015? Let the public judge all of them.

The malice in the arrest is patent on its face. How could these warrant officers of the MPD know I was coming in the afternoon of Easter Sunday from abroad and would arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 3 Terminal if they did not deliberately seek my whereabouts and plan my arrest?

Aside from me, there were two others—Hataw editor Gloria M. Galuno and circulation manager Edwin R. Alcala—also named along with me as persons to be arrested on these two libel cases. Why these warrant officers staked out only for my arrest speaks of volumes of clear intention to harass me, nothing else. And this must have been orchestrated by Ibay because he is the only interested party here. How much did he spend for my arrest?

I therefore call again our lawmakers to scrap this libel law from the statute books. We do not need this law. What we need is Freedom Of Information (FOI) law that will give the citizens and journalists freedom or access to all transactions of the government to serve the better end of democracy: transparency and responsibility.

I wish to state clear that we journalists, police Senior Inspector Rosalino P. Ibay Jr., the Office of the City Prosecutor, Judge Noli Diaz, and all other officials are less important than the State, whose interest of good governance is far more paramount than ours.

And because it shows that this libel law tends to defeat good governance, there is no other better policy but to remove this tyranny and let everybody defend himself or herself on his or her own against perceive defamation and not for the State to take the cudgels for him or her who is most likely guilty of matters accused him or her in publications.