Libel case versus Morato junked by Manila court

Independent senatorial candidate Manuel Morato averted a possible awkward encounter in jail with his arch-nemesis former President Joseph Estrada after a Manila court yesterday acquitted him of libel charges filed seven years ago by Senate reelectionist Miriam Defensor-Santiago and her husband.

Sounding sober and apologetic, the usually feisty and outspoken former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) chief told reporters later that it was not his intention to malign the Santiago couple.

Miriam’s husband Narciso, a lawyer, was then not yet an Undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) when the case was filed.

The statement of Morato was based on Judge Zenaida Daguna’s decision wherein she ruled that the accused’s statements in his column appearing in the government-run People’s Journal tabloid, were actually against a columnist of another newspaper. Morato strongly suggested in his column that the other columnist was receiving bribe money from the Santiago couple.

Miriam was then about to run for senator in the 1995 elections where she won her first six-year term.

Morato also ran for the Senate in 1995 and for President in 1998 with ousted President Estrada as one of his several opponents.

The Estrada-Morato feud has long been sensationalized in the press. Estrada, who is facing several non-bailable cases of plunder since his ouster, is facing arrest and detention anytime soon.

Based on the 13-page decision of Judge Daguna, of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19, Morato said in his column "Uncensored" that columnist Emil Jurado met with Narciso at the former’s restaurant in Quezon City on June 24, 1995. Morato said Narciso was then carrying a "heavy portfolio" and then posed a question "Who brought it (portfolio) out?" Morato then went on to give a lecture on bribery, press ethics, and "envelopmental journalism." – Jose Aravilla