(CMFR/IFEX) – Five journalists face libel charges for publishing stories implicating a municipal mayor as the mastermind of a 94 million-peso (approx. US$1.7 million) bank robbery in Bogo, Cebu province, south of Manila. “Sun.Star Cebu” editor-in-chief Pachico Seares, managing editor for news Isolde Amante, news editor Maria Carmel Geverola and reporters Mia Abellana and Karlon […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – Five journalists face libel charges for publishing stories implicating a municipal mayor as the mastermind of a 94 million-peso (approx. US$1.7 million) bank robbery in Bogo, Cebu province, south of Manila.
“Sun.Star Cebu” editor-in-chief Pachico Seares, managing editor for news Isolde Amante, news editor Maria Carmel Geverola and reporters Mia Abellana and Karlon Rama were named respondents for the libel case filed on 3 October 2005 by Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III at the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor.
Martinez took offence at the 24 September and 1 October news articles of “Sun.Star” on the allegations that he financed the robbery of Land Bank of the Philippines Bogo Branch on 2 August.
In a statement, Seares said the stories concerned a public official’s conduct and were a matter of public interest. The libel case, Seares claimed, was meant to harass only the “Sun.Star”, as the other print and broadcast media in Cebu also reported on the allegation.
He added that “Sun.Star” included Martinez’s side in the reports and allowed the mayor’s right to reply.
Martinez said, however, that the way the articles were written “was without basis and uncalled for.” The alleged libellous articles were based on robbery suspect Dindo Ancero’s claims, which Martinez said were unverified. Ancero is also a respondent in the libel suit.
The mayor said the paper should not have carried the reports since Ancero had already recanted his allegations.
He also accused the “Sun.Star” journalists of publishing the reports to please the owners of the paper, who are relatives of his political enemies.
