RIGHT TO FILE LIBEL FORFEITED IF ONE AVAILS
OF RIGHT TO REPLY - PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he will propose that any person who has already been accorded the right to reply by the mass media over an objectionable story or commentary could not sue for libel anymore over the same item.

Pimentel said that this provision can be inserted into the right to reply bill as one of the modifications to be considered when the measure is tackled at the bicameral conference committee.

He made the proposal as Speaker Prospero Nograles said an informal survey conducted by his office showed that majority of the members of the House of Representatives favors the enactment of a right of reply law despite resistance from the media community.

The senator said he was informed that the House is about to approve its own version bill. The Senate had approved a similar measure in July, 2008.

The right to reply bill has a companion measure, the decriminalization of libel. But while the approval of the right of reply by Congress is already in sight, the same cannot be true of the decriminalization of libel.

"Knowing how the two chambers of Congress work, it would take more time to approve the bill decriminalizing libel than to approve the bill granting the right to reply," the senator from Mindanao told the Newsdesk forum at Ambassador Hotel in Malate.

"What I heard is that the House is going to approve the right to reply bill anytime. I am not certain when we can approve the decriminalizing of libel. But at the bicameral conference committee, we can adopt a rule that if a person has already availed of his right to reply, he could no longer file a libel case against anyone over the same media item."

The House has passed this week the bill decriminalizing level. The Senate has yet to take up the bill in plenary session.

Pimentel, who authored both bills, explained that decriminalizing libel does not mean that the persons who feel they were libeled would no longer have any remedy in law.

"They would still have an avenue in law to vindicate their good name or reputation that might have been besmirched. And that is to file civil actions for damages against the defamer," the minority leaders said.

"Should decriminalizing libel come about, the additional remedy that the offended party may take in addition to the action for damages would be his or her right to reply."