Benipayo faces arrest for libel

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Alfredo Benipayo may face indictment and arrest after the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office found probable cause in the two libel cases filed against him by Photokina Marketing Corp.

In two separate resolutions, Assistant City Prosecutors Rossana Montojo and Ronald Ancheta recommended the filing of criminal charges against Benipayo for making "highly libelous and derogatory public statements" against Photokina.

Photokina, the winning bidder of the Comelec’s controversial Voters Registration and Identification System (VRIS), claimed damages amounting to P100 million for each of the two cases.

In the first case, Montojo said Benipayo may have libeled Photokina when he accused the firm and its foreign partner of committing acts of bribery and rigging the bidding for the VRIS project in an interview with Ces Drilon in ABS-CBN’s "Pointblank" program.

In the second case, Ancheta said Benipayo probably committed libel when he accused Photokina of "trying to hoodwink (the government) into a contract that is so grossly disadvantageous to the government" in a public forum on Jan. 31, 2002. Benipayo’s speech was later published in a newspaper.

Benipayo did not submit a counter-affidavit and other supporting documents in the preliminary investigation of the cases but he questioned the jurisdiction of the Quezon City prosecutors over constitutional and impeachable officers like himself,

Citing the case of former Sandiganbayan justice and now Iloilo Rep. Raul Gonzales, Benipayo argued that he had immunity from criminal prosecution because he was an impeachable constitutional officer.

But in her resolution, Montojo said the case of Gonzales did not apply to Benipayo because Gonzales’ case was administrative and involved disbarment while the suit against Benipayo was criminal and civil in nature.

Montojo argued that Gonzales’ case could have resulted in removal from office while Benipayo’s case may only involve suspension.

Both government lawyers added that their only function was to determine probable cause in the cases and the legal issues raised by Benipayo could only be addressed by the regional trial court.

The first case was raffled off to the sala of Judge Normandy Pizzaro of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 101 while the second case was raffled off to Judge Jaime Salazar of Branch 103. The prosecutors recommended bail of P10,000.

But Salazar recused himself from hearing the case because Benipayo’s father-in-law, the late Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro, was supposedly instrumental in Salazar’s appointment to the bench.

Photokina also quickly filed a motion asking the court to consolidate the two cases under one branch because there is only one respondent.