(CMFR/IFEX) – On 9 May 2005, Jofelle Tesorio, editor-in-chief of the weekly community paper “Bandillo ng Palawan”, in Palawan, an island southwest of Manila, was served with an arrest warrant in connection with a libel case filed against her by former Palawan congressman Vicente Sandoval Sr. The warrant was issued by Judge Ma. Theresa Dela […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – On 9 May 2005, Jofelle Tesorio, editor-in-chief of the weekly community paper “Bandillo ng Palawan”, in Palawan, an island southwest of Manila, was served with an arrest warrant in connection with a libel case filed against her by former Palawan congressman Vicente Sandoval Sr. The warrant was issued by Judge Ma. Theresa Dela Torre-Yadao, of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 81.
In 2003, Sandoval filed three libel suits against “Bandillo ng Palawan” for allegedly maligning him in a series of stories written by Tesorio in her column “Kwentong Puerto”. At the time, Sandoval was in his last term as congressman and was contemplating running for governor. In the 2004 elections, he and his wife ran for governor and congresswoman, respectively, but both were defeated.
In a December 2002 column, Tesorio criticised Sandoval for his alleged interest in the commercial fishing business. Tesorio reported that Sandoval was blocking the approval of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Deputy Administrative Order 17 (AO 17). In order to protect small-scale and marginalised fishermen, AO 17 proposed to delineate a 15 km area of water for the sole use of local fishermen, and from which commercial fishing fleets would be banned. Tesorio reported that it was well-known that some of Sandoval’s relatives were in the commercial fishing business.
The first complaint filed by Sandoval against Tesorio was dismissed by Quezon City Assistant Prosecutor Primo Sio on 19 February 2004 for “lack of merit.” The resolution said that public servants should not be “onion-skinned” with criticisms from the media.
Sandoval subsequently filed a second complaint, following the publication of Tesorio’s column in the 16-22 June 2003 issue of “Bandillo ng Palawan”. In the column, Tesorio ranked a number of public servants and non-government organisation (NGO) workers in accordance with who had performed the “best” and the “worst” for the year. Sandoval was given a poor rating by the journalist because of his lackluster performance and his positions on a number of environmental and political issues.
A third article by Tesorio was published in the newspaper’s 22-26 June 2003 issue. It alleged that Sandoval was linked to corrupt activities involving projects undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). A contractor for DPWH projects in Sandoval’s district had complained about alleged irregularities in the bidding for projects from the congressman’s fund.
“Bandillo ng Palawan” believes the cases were filed against the paper as a harassment tactic as the lawsuits were launched just before the gubernatorial elections. According to Tesorio, Sandoval wanted to avoid any negative publicity in his bid for governor.
The cases were filed in Quezon City, not in Palawan where the newspaper is published and where Sandoval is registered. “Bandillo ng Palawan” has requested that the trial be transferred to Palawan since it would be more convenient for the defendants to attend hearings in their hometown.
