Supreme Court finds Coyiuto liable for libel

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court has found Robert Coyiuto Jr., the defunct Manila Chronicle newspaper and its officers liable to taipan Alfonso Yuchengco for libel and ordered the respondents to pay the petitioner P38.5 million in damages.

In a 32-page decision, the SC reversed the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeals and ruled that the series of articles published by the Manila Chronicle against Yuchengco in 1994 showed actual malice on the part of the respondents, with the intention to injure the reputation of Yuchengco and expose him to public hatred, discredit, contempt and ridicule.

The case stemmed from published articles branding Yuchengco as a dummy for former President Ferdinand Marcos and his brother-in-law Benjamin Romualdez. Both the Regional Trial Court and Court of Appeals found Coyiuto and Manila Chronicle liable for damages. The Court of Appeals reversed the decision on reconsideration. The SC noted that “in a span of one month, respondents wrote and published and/or caused the publication of seven libelous articles against Yuchengco,” proving the intention of Coyiuto and Manila Chronicle to “launch a personal attack on the very person of Yuchengco.” The Court said that when malice is in fact proven, the defense of qualified privileged communication does not exempt the respondents from liability. – Nestor Etolle