Broadcast journalist Raffy Tulfo and others must pay more damages after losing a libel suit stemming from a column he wrote for a tabloid 2003, the Supreme Court has ruled.
In an April 10 decision only made available to the media on Thursday, the SC Third Division also ordered Tulfo and representatives of Abante Tonite’s publisher to pay businessman Michael Guy P500,000 in moral damages, P1 million in exemplary damages, and P211,200 in attorney’s fees.
It was an increase from the P500,000 in moral damages and the same amount of attorney’s fees that the Court of Appeals had ordered Tulfo and the tabloid’s officials to pay Guy in 2014.
“Here, respondents published the libelous article without verifying the truth of the allegations against petitioner,” the Supreme Court held in an 18-page decision.
The Makati City Regional Trial Court convicted Tulfo and the other respondents of libel in 2010, which the CA affirmed, modifying the amount of damages in 2013 and 2014.
Guy is the owner of MG Forex Corp., one of the largest non-bank foreign exchange firms in the country. He elevated his case to the high court to seek P5 million in moral damages. However, agreeing with the appeals court, the SC Third Division found that Guy “failed to substantiate the loss he had allegedly sustained.”
The executives ordered to pay Guy, apart from Tulfo are Abante Tonite’s Allen Macasaet, Nicolas Quijano, Jr., Janet Bay, Jesus Galang, Randy Hagos, Jeany Lacorte, and Venus Tandoc.
They did not appeal their conviction to the Supreme Court, thus their criminal liability was not raised as an issue. Only Guy asked for a higher amount of damages.
“This case comes at a time when the credibility of journalists is needed more than ever; when their tried-and-tested practice of adhering to their own code of ethics becomes more necessary, so that their truth may provide a stronger bulwark against the recklessness in social media,” said Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, who penned the decision.
Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Andres Reyes, Jr., Ramon Paul Hernando, and Rosmari Carandang concurred with the ruling.
The ruling came with a reminder for journalists that “crafting inaccurate and misleading news is a blatant violation of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.”
“As such, journalists should observe high standards expected from their profession. They must take responsibility for the accuracy of their work, careful never to deliberately distort facts or context by verifying the information before releasing it for public consumption,” the Court said.