CA upholds libel conviction vs Mejorada

Former provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada and Senator Franklin Drilon

The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld the guilty verdict on a libel case filed against former provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla, the appellate court denied Mejorada’s petition to overturn the decision of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.

The libel case was filed by Senator Franklin Drilon, who was accused by Mejorada of corruption in the construction of the Iloilo Convention Center and other infrastructure projects implemented in Iloilo.

In his social media and blog posts, Mejorada,  according to the CA, “portrayed Senator Drilon as intervening in various projects, manipulating them and benefiting himself by unwarranted gains.”

“A cursory reading of these articles would show the intention of accused-appellant to injure the reputation, credit and virtue of Senator Drilon and expose him to public hatred, discredit, contempt and ridicule,” the appellate court said.

“The subject articles are clearly not the fair and true reports contemplated by the provision.

They provide no details of the acts supposedly committed by Senator Drilon but repeatedly accused him instead of manipulating the procurement process of the several projects,” it further said.

The CA also found malice in Mejorada’s allegations because they were “not fair and true reports” but are “plain and simple baseless accusations,” which he failed to substantiate.

“Words and phrases like ‘grandmother of all anomalies,’ ‘fat income for Mabilog and Drilon,’ ‘corruption at its worst,’ and ‘Drilon’s Midas’ Touch,’ are indisputably defamatory for they impute upon the senator a condition that is dishonorable and shameful, since they tend to describe him as a corrupt public official,” it said.

Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Franchito N. Diamante concurred and modified the sentence against Mejorada to a prison term of two to four years for each of the four counts of libel “to be served simultaneously”.

SOURCE: Iloilo Metropolitan Times

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