The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has convicted Baguio City-based journalist Frank Cimatu for cyber libel over a Facebook post against former agriculture chief Manny Piñol.
QC RTC Branch 93 Judge Evangeline Cabochan-Santos sentenced Cimatu to six months and one day to five years and five months in prison.
She also directed Cimatu to pay Piñol P300,000 in moral damages.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros pushed to decriminalize libel, saying the present libel laws have been used and abused to suppress the freedom of the press in the country.
“Our libel laws have been weaponized to stifle very basic fundamental rights. These laws have been used to constantly attack many of our freedoms, particularly the freedom of the press. We need to decriminalize libel if we are to truly defend press freedom,” said Hontiveros, who filed Senate Bill No. 1593 on Tuesday.
The filing came on the heels of the Cimatu conviction.
A libel case was filed against Cimatu for his Facebook post “Agri Sec got rich by 21M in 6 months. Bird flu pa more.”
“A cursory reading of the Facebook post would show the intention of the writer, herein accused Cimatu, to injure the reputation, credit, and virtue of Piñol and expose him to public hatred, discredit, contempt and ridicule,” the decision read.
“Accused made it appear that during the bird flu outbreak, Piñol, who, at the time the Facebook post was published, the secretary of DA, committed corrupt acts and gained P21 million in six months,” it added.
“Taking into consideration the words used by Cimatu and the subject Facebook post, which appears to be an imputation of a crime, the same is defamatory and, thus, satisfies the first element of the crime of cyber libel,” it stated.
The lower court said the social media post was made with reckless disregard for whether what Cimatu said was true and that he did not present any evidence to prove his claim against Piñol.
“Accused failed to show any proof that his post was done in good faith, this notwithstanding, being afforded with all the opportunity to ventilate his defenses and pieces of evidence in the present action. In view of his option to waive the presentation of evidence, the accused failed to prove that he made further research on the matter before making the Facebook post,’ the court cited.
“This is a clear indication of the intention of the accused to malign Piñol, no matter the cost, and is clearly proof of malice. Henceforth, the Court finds the imputation to be untrue and that the accused acted with malice,” the court said.
Hontiveros said cyber libel was also repeatedly used against Nobel laureate Maria Ressa for her work in Rappler.
In 2020, Ressa and former colleague Reynaldo Santos were convicted for cyber libel.
Two years later, the Court of Appeals rejected Ressa and Santos’s appeals, and last October, the Court of Appeals again rejected their motion to reconsider the decision.
“These journalists have wasted years of their lives facing charges for doing their jobs. Cyber libel has been used to silence our journalists. If we don’t correct this, libel will continue to be used to take away our freedom,” Hontiveros said.
In Senate Bill 1593, Hontiveros emphasized that the rise and prevalence of social media as a primary medium of communication has led to the further weaponization of libel laws against the press and active citizenship. The senator also said that the avalanche of cyber libel cases has only resulted in the clogging of court dockets.
“It is the job of reporters to share information for public knowledge. We need the press to vet information and continue to be the safekeepers of facts,” Hontiveros said.
“With the flood of fake news on social media, we need to protect their profession even more. If we fail to do so, if we allow our laws to punish rather than protect the press, we chip away at our constitutional rights. This will cost us our democracy,” she added.