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12 guilty
of libel
By: KIT BAGAIPO
The
Regional Trial Court finds 12 members of a cooperative in Inabanga guilty in a
libel case filed by Provincial Board Member Josephine Socorro Jumamoy and former
Inabanga Mayor Jose Jumamoy.
In
a 14-page decision, RTC Branch 47 Judge Suceso Arcamo meted a P100,000 fine to
accused Julie Torreon, Zita Conson, Adeline Ybañez, German Divinagracia,
Damaso dela Peña, Manuel Pizarras Jr., Jesuree Bautista, Ignacio Amolo,
Lourdes Melencion, Rev. Fr. Domingo Boiser Jr., Lydia Misa and Nelda Cadeliña.
Finding
them guilty beyond reasonable doubt, the court likewise ordered each of the accused
to pay a fine of P3,000 each with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
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The case stemmed
from a defamatory article published in a local newspaper by officers and members
of St. Paul the Apostle Parish Multi-Purpose Cooperative on October 27, 2002.
The
article which read in part as follows: "For the knowledge of all, Inabanga
is the bailiwick of a politician who was the opponent and was defeated by Congressman
Cajes in the last election. The family of this politician has controlled the town
for 15 years. This politician is well known in the town of intimidating and threatening
his opponents and enemies in politics, etc…" | Based
on evidences and testimonies of witnesses, Arcamo found that the four essential
elements of the crime of libel were present.
The
decision said that imputing the commission of the crime of intimidation, coercion
and grave threats, as cited in the published article, besmirched, discredited
and put in contempt the persons of the private complainants.
The
court likewise found the publication malicious and identified the Jumamoys as
the ones referred to in the article who have ruled Inabanga for 15 years by intimidating
and threatening opponents.
Arcamo
cited a cross examination of the complainants' counsel, Atty. Alexander Lim on
Fr. Boiser (one of the accused), who admitted that the subject of the said published
article were the Jumamoys even though their names were not mentioned.
The
decision was promulgated last Tuesday. | 
