Nograles 'meddling' in release of libel convict hit
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/06/2009 8:06 PM
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Lawyer and professor Harry Roque on Tuesday expressed dismay over the circumstances behind the release of former radio broadcaster Alexander Adonis from a Davao prison, saying press freedom is still under attack.
In a statement, Roque said the release of Adonis, who spent nearly two years in prison at the Davao Penal Colony in relation to charges of libel filed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles, was only "effected after an apology was made and arranged by no less than an organization formed to protect of press freedom."
The Board of Pardon and Parole granted parole to Adonis on December 11, 2007, after serving the minimum sentence for a libel case, which was only discovered by Roque after he was engaged by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) to assist Adonis.
Later, Director Tesoro argued that he cannot free the jailed broadcaster because of a pending second libel case based on the same report for which he had been convicted and filed against him by local media personality Jeanette Leuterio, the woman alleged to be the paramour of Nograles.
Tesoro, who only has custodial powers over prisoners, argued that the pending case disqualified Adonis from receiving his parole.
The prison official still refused to release Adonis despite an order for his release issued on May 26, 2008 by the Davao Regional Trial Court Branch 14 after Davao media colleagues paid a P5,000 bail bond for Adonis on the second libel case.
Because of this, Roque, together with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus with the Supreme Court on behalf of Adonis.
Before the High Court could resolve the petition however, the National Press Club (NPC) stepped in, convincing Adonis to instead apologize to Leuterio. In late September, Adonis discharged the services of Roque in favor of a lawyer engaged by the NPC to facilitate the former broadcaster’s court apology.
But Roque, chairperson of the Center for International Law, a non-governmental organization advocating the right to free expression, said that Speaker Nograles, in tandem with a media group, solicited the apology as a pre-condition for the broadcaster’s release.
This, Roque explained, does not bode well for press freedom because apparently, politically influential public officers can themselves determine who amongst the media practitioners should be jailed and when they should be released.
This was borne out by Nograles subsequently claiming that Adonis owed his newfound freedom to him, since he had prevailed on Leuterio to drop her charge against the radio broadcaster if the latter issued a public apology, Roque's statement said.
The second libel case was withdrawn on October after Adonis issued a apology said in open court. On 27 October, the Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 dismissed the second libel case and ordered that Adonis be "released from detention unless there be other lawful grounds for his further confinement."
"Criminal libel is a violation of the right to freedom of expression and yet here we find an organization that is supposed to fight for this right leading the capitulation to the powers-that-be," Nograles said.
"In the first place, there was no need for that apology. Mr. Adonis had already been paroled. It was his legal right to be released from prison, a right that Director Tesoro refused to recognize. That is why we filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court," he said.
He also criticized Speaker Nograles, saying the legislator should stop acting like the radio broadcaster’s savior. "Let us not forget that in the very first place, it was Speaker Nograles who threw Mr. Adonis in jail."
Roque had also brought Adonis’ case before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, saying his conviction in a criminal case for libel violates the Philippines’ obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights guaranteeing the freedom of expression.
Adonis was convicted on January 26, 2007 in the first libel case filed against him by Davao representative and current House Speaker Nograles. Nograles filed libel charges in October 2001 for a report by Adonis on his alleged extra-marital affairs.
Adonis, reading from a tabloid, reported on his program that Nograles had been caught in a compromising situation with his alleged paramour in a hotel in Manila. His conviction carried a sentence of a maximum of four years in prison.
The Davao Penal Colony is under the Bureau of Corrections headed by Director Oscar Calderon and is a line agency under the Department of Justice. The NUJP had earlier called the attention of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to act immediately on Adonis’ release.
