(CMFR/IFEX) – A tabloid columnist has been sentenced to 28 years in prison after the Pasay City Regional Trial Court found him guilty of 14 counts of libel on 1 March 2005. Raffy Tulfo, a hard-hitting journalist who writes a column titled “Shoot to Kill” for the evening daily “Abante Tonite”, was also ordered to […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – A tabloid columnist has been sentenced to 28 years in prison after the Pasay City Regional Trial Court found him guilty of 14 counts of libel on 1 March 2005.
Raffy Tulfo, a hard-hitting journalist who writes a column titled “Shoot to Kill” for the evening daily “Abante Tonite”, was also ordered to pay Php210 million (approx. US$3.8 million) to complainant Carlos Co, a former Bureau of Customs Intelligence and Investigation officer.
Also found guilty by Judge Priscilla Mijares were “Abante Tonite” publisher Allen Macasaet and managing editor Nicolas Quijano.
Co filed the libel case against Tulfo for saying he was an “extortionist, corrupt, and [an] adulterer” in his column, which ran from 3 March to 12 May 1999. The court said Tulfo failed to authenticate reports he received from sources and did not include Co’s side of the story.
Tulfo, whose brother Ramon, a columnist for the “Philippine Daily Inquirer”, has also been implicated in numerous libel suits, said he would bring the case to the Appeals Court.
