The lawyer of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo on Monday said he will ask the Court of Appeals (CA) to reconsider its September 22 decision denying his client’s petition to dismiss the class suit filed by journalists who accused him of threatening press freedom.

The CA’s Seventh Division denied Mr. Arroyo’s petition “for lack of merit.”

“I’m disappointed. I thought my arguments were clear. Of course, I don’t agree with the decision. I have 15 days to file a motion for reconsideration,” Rondain told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview.

If the CA will not reverse its decision, he said he will file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Rondain wanted the case dismissed on a technicality. He argued that the class suit should be dismissed because the journalists paid insufficient docket fees.

The journalists—who are seeking P12.5 million in damages—paid P250,000 in docket fee. But according to Rondain, the journalists should have collectively paid an estimated P9 million.

Rondain argued that based on the wordings of the original petition, each journalist was seeking for P12.5 million compensation. This means that each of the 36 original complainants should have paid P250,000 in docket fee or a total of P9 million. (The number of complainants has gone up to 45 as of posting.)

Amended complaint

The journalists’ lawyer, Harry Roque, later submitted an amended complaint to clarify that the complainants are collectively asking for P12.5 million in compensation, not P12.5 million each.

The CA cited the Supreme Court decision in Heirs of Bertuldo Hinog vs. Hon. Achilles Melicor that “non-payment of the proper docket fees at the time of filing does not automatically warrant the dismissal of the case.”

Roque welcomed the CA decision. “This is the beginning of the end of impunity. Those who will use libel laws to infringe on freedom of the press: beware. Democracy fought back and won,” he said.

But the CA decision didn’t entirely dismiss Rondain’s argument that the journalists paid insufficient docket fees. It merely passed the burden back to the lower court.

The CA lifted the writ of preliminary injunction it earlier issued when Rondain filed the petition to dismiss the case. The lower court is now ordered to continue hearing the case.

“Precisely, the trial court is subjecting the matter to a preliminary hearing of the affirmative defenses.... The trial court may also order the reassessment of the docket fees and if there is any deficiency, it shall order private respondents to pay the same within a reasonable period,” the CA decision said.

The class suit was filed in December 2006 in response to the string of libel suits filed by the First Gentleman against 40 or so journalists. After a heart surgery in May 2007, Arroyo later instructed his lawyer to dismiss all these libel cases.