RTC finds Leo guilty of libel
Lastimosa said it wasn’t Gwen; judge awards her P2M
Because Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia was named in Leo Lastimosa’s “previous attacks against the governor,” the broadcaster-columnist “cannot deny the obvious reference” in his June 29, 2007 column “Si Doling Kawatan”, Judge Raphael Yrastorza says in his decision
THE court yesterday found broadcaster Leo Lastimosa guilty of libel, saying his column about a certain “Doling” who was “a thief, corrupt, arrogant, vindictive and cruel” was an attack on former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
Regional Trial Court Judge Raphael Yrastorza fined Lastimosa P6,000 “with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency” and ordered him to pay P2 million in moral damages.
“His diatribes are not only against her (Garcia’s) public, but including also her private life,” read Judge Yrastorza’s 38page decision.
Lastimosa voiced his disappointment when interviewed after the promulgation and his lawyer, Celso Espinosa, said they
The decision was made in a vacuum – Newspaper columnist and DyAB station manager Leo Lastimosa, on his conviction Let the court decision speak for itself. Justice has been served – Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, who was serving her second term as Cebu governor when she filed this libel case in 2007 against Lastimosa
would appeal.
“The decision was made in a vacuum,” Lastimosa said.
The column in question, published in The Freeman last June 29, 2007, talks about a fishmonger who illegally amasses wealth and a fleet of vehicles, then wins an election for barangay captain. Lastimosa titled this column “Si Doling Kawatan (Doling the thief).”
‘Fiction’
When he testified, Lastimosa said he was not referring to anyone in particular in that column.
The radio dyAB station manager and TV Patrol Central Visayas news anchor said that Garcia’s claim she was the one referred to in his column was “absolutely an erroneous assertion.”
He said it was a “work of fiction in a third-person narration form.”
Defense witness Democrito Barcenas, a lawyer who once served as vice governor of Cebu, also testified that “Doling” wasn’t Garcia, who has never been been a fishmonger nor barangay captain.
“But to the court’s mind, the subterfuge was obvious,” Judge Yrastorza said in his decision.
He said the column could not be considered “qualified privileged communication” because its writer had failed to show any “legal, moral or social duty” for writing it.
Garcia’s lawyer, Lito Astillero, told reporters: “Justice has been served. The judgment is a clear vindication of the complainant.”
Garcia, in a statement posted in radio dyLA’s Facebook account, said: “Let the court decision speak for itself. Justice has been served.”
Same descriptions
She was serving her second of three terms as governor when she filed this libel case against Lastimosa. Garcia is now serving her first term as congresswoman of Cebu Province’s third district.
Garcia and a former consultant of her father, Glenn Baricuatro, both testified as well. (Baricuatro is now mayor of Pinamungajan.)
In his testimony, Baricuatro said he had heard Lastimosa attack the governor on personal matters and on her reputation on his radio program “Arangkada.”
He said he heard Lastimosa describe the governor as corrupt, arrogant, vindictive, ill-tempered, foul-mouthed and cruel— “the very same vices or defects printed in his column on June 29, 2007.”
The prosecution identified 15 other columns where Lastimosa described Garcia using the same qualities “Doling” possessed.
Baricuatro also testified that he thought “Doling” was a “cheeky play on the first name” of the governor.
The prosecution also presented lawyer Pachico Seares, Sun.Star Cebu’s public and standards editor, whom the court described as an independent witness.
Identifiable
Seares had written on July 19, 2007 a column that mentioned an informal survey among his students at the University of the Philippines Cebu.
Of the 15 students surveyed, nine students said it was Garcia that Lastimosa referred to in his column, while five others said they could not identify who “Doling” was.
In a statement yesterday on behalf of the Cebu Citizens-Press Council and the Cebu Media Legal Aid, lawyers Seares and Elias Espinoza said they were saddened by the decision.
They pointed out that it was not yet final, and that Lastimosa may appeal to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, “where in many cases in the past the right to free comment was upheld.”
“Leo’s right to due process is not over. Let it be pursued freely, without the interference of political or economic power, in the higher courts,” the joint statement said.
“And let the decision not dissuade journalists from continuing to do their job courageously and responsibly.”
Seares is also executive director of the council, while Espinoza is president of the Cebu Media Legal Aid. (Disclosure: Both write columns for Sun.Star Cebu.)
When she testified, then-governor Garcia said that as a child, she was sometimes teased by being called “Doling.”
‘Forewarned’
She pointed out that Lastimosa’s column also referred to a fleet of vehicles acquired by Doling and told the court that before she became governor in 2004, she had a trucking business, with a fleet of 20 dump trucks, as well as a car rental business.
Garcia also testified that from Nov. 9, 2006 to June 2, 2007, she counted at least 40 columns by Lastimosa that “assaulted” her policies and actions.
Garcia said she was “extremely disturbed” by Lastimosa’s column, and “had to assure and reassure her children and their families that she never fed, clothed, sheltered and educated them using illgotten money.”
In the judgment, Judge Yrastorza pointed out that before the “Doling” column, the governor had sued Lastimosa twice.
But Lastimosa “seemed not to have heeded such clear warnings...but continued his attacks, this time hiding behind a pseudonym.”
One of those cases was settled in February 2009, after a dialogue.
“He (Lastimosa) cannot say that he was never forewarned. Otherwise, he should have avoided such attacks which he had not proven in a court of law,” Yrastorza said.