ABS-CBN president and chief executive officer Carlo Katigbak, ABS-CBN News Digital executive editor Lynda Jumilla, and journalist Anjo Bagaoisan on Thursday, February 3, refuted the cyber libel case filed by businessman Dennis Uy regarding two online articles on the latter’s companies’ purchase of 90% interest in the Malampaya project.
They subscribed to their joint counter-affidavit before Makati City senior assistant city prosecutor John Ong claiming that the complaints were “false and baseless.”
“[T]he News Articles were made and published in the exercise of freedom of the press. We never violated or abused our rights: The News Articles are fair, true and accurate reports of a matter of public interest and involving a public figure,” they said.
“At most, it could be said that we are biased in favor of the public, so that they may be informed of national matters,” they added.
Katigbak is facing charges as representative of the media company, Jumilla as top editor of ABS-CBN’s news website, and Bagaoisan for an article he wrote.
The complaints were based on the October 19, 2021-article published on ABS-CBN’s website which talked about the graft case faced by Uy and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi for an alleged questionable sale of shares in the Malampaya gas-to-power project.
The second article written by Bagaoisan and published on October 26, 2021, explained his coverage of a webinar by one of the complainants against Uy and Cusi, lawyer Rodel Rodis.
Uy claimed in his complaint that the articles were defamatory and it ruined his reputation as they supposedly accused him of corruption, graft, cronyism, and theft of the country’s natural resources.
He said that the Malampaya deal was a “strictly private transaction” and the allegations are “shallow analyses of limited materials,” “pure speculations and conjectures.”
Uy is asking for P200 million in damages.
Katigbak, Jumilla, and Bagaoisan defended in their counter-affidavit that there were no defamatory imputations articles as it only contained the summary of the Ombudsman’s complaints and the remarks of the complainant. They also said they have no ill will against Uy.
“We reiterate that the News Articles merely reported the filing of the Graft Complaint and the statements made by Atty. Rodis during a publicly-held webinar. The Graft Complaint and Atty. Rodis, one of the complainants, ‘publicly accused’ Mr. Uy of committing a crime, and not us,
“Mr. Uy argued that whatever is being quoted in the News Articles automatically becomes the imputation of the reporter or publisher. This is an absurd position. Following Mr. Uy’s theory, no report on the commission of any crime, filing of a case against any person, or even a report of a statement given during a public conference, would ever be made for the chilling fear of subsequent punishment. This is simply not the intention of the law on libel,” they said.
