Court defers arraignment of actress Amalia Fuentes

CEBU, Philippines – Movie actress Amalia Fuentes and the editors and reporter of Philippine Entertainment Portals, her co-accused in the P10-million libel suit filed by a member of the affluent Aznar clan in Cebu, did not show up in court yesterday for the arraignment.

PEP lawyer Christine Joanne de Claro-Navarro instead moved to defer the proceedings of the case pending the resolution of their petition for review before the Department of Justice where they sought the dismissal of the case.

Regional Trial Court Branch 18 Judge Gilbert Moises was forced to reset the arraignment on December 10 to give time to the prosecution to comment or oppose Navarro's motion.

Fuentes, who is Amalia Stevens in real life, was charged for libel together with Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng, president of PEP Inc., Jo-Ann Maglipon, editor-in-chief, Karen Pagsolingan, managing editor, associate editors Erwin Santiago and Rommel Llanes, Flor Caagusan, copy editor, Jocelyn Dimaculangan, senior editor, community editor Elyas Isabelo Salanga and writer Mark Angelo Ching by Angelica Aznar Sierra.

The case stemmed from a PEP article published in October 2, 2009 attributed to Fuentes as having accused Sierra of being a paramour of her ex-husband, Joey Stevens. In the article Fuentes was quoted as having alleged that her ex-husband and Sierra had a child.

Sierra said that "malicious" article was false and was allegedly intended to discredit and expose her and her children to "public contempt and ridicule." 

Fuentes however denied the charges claiming that what was published by PEP was "hearsay" and was attributed to her without her consent. She claimed that she merely confirmed to PEP writer that an alleged mistress of her ex-husband was arrested and held in Camp Karingal. (FREEMAN)