Statement vs. fellow doctor ‘not libelous’

A MEDICAL doctor from Cebu City has asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to drop the libel case filed against him by a colleague over a comment that the latter is not qualified for a post in the hospital.

Dr. Warfe Engracia, through his lawyer Ramon Ceniza, filed a petition seeking to declare as null the issuance of an arrest warrant against him.

Ceniza also asked the appellate court for a status quo pending resolution of their petition.

“The arrest order, arraignment and the public hearings that followed have caused a lot of pain and embarrassment on the part of the petitioner,” the petition read.

The Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor earlier filed the libel case in court against Engracia for allegedly besmirching the reputation of Dr. Valeriano Hortelano.

Hortelano, head of the CT-Scan Section of the Sacred Heart Hospital, sued Engracia for libel after the latter commented in the view box that he was not qualified to head a hospital section.

Engracia is also the chair of the Radiology Department of Sacred Heart Hospital.

Engracia wrote a letter to Dr. Delia Evardo, medical director, and voiced “surprise” over the appointment of Hortelano as head of the CT-Scan Section.

Engracia told Evardo that Hortelano is not a fellow of the Philippine College of Radiology.

When he saw the list of hospital personnel in the control room of CT-Scan Section, Engracia said he “instinctively” expressed his reaction by writing the phrase “not qualified, no fellowship” just across the name of Hortelano.

Engracia said he had no intention to disseminate his written comment. In fact, the area where the view box is placed is restricted only to radiology staff and medical doctors.

He said the hospital’s executive committee was the one that routed the list of hospital personnel to other departments.

Engracia denied the comment was malicious. He said the remark is “far from being false and malicious” and that he did it in response to his “duty” as chair of the radiology department.

Absent of any of the elements of defamatory imputation and malice in law and in fact, there is no libel, Engracia’s petition said.

After his arraignment in April 2012, lawyer Ceniza filed a motion to remand the case to the government prosecutors for reinvestigation. He also asked the court to dismiss the libel case, but such was denied. The court also denied the petitioner’s motion for determination of probable cause.

In the petition, lawyer Ceniza pointed said the trial court gravely abused its discretion when it did not conform with the admission of Hortelano that he is not a fellow of the Philippine College of Radiology.