‘I Am Not Corrupt,’ Says Official Who Has Filed Sixty-Three Libel Cases This Year Against People Who Said He Is
The Libel Case as Communication Strategy: A Philippine Political Tradition
A provincial official facing allegations of irregular disbursement of public infrastructure funds held a press conference Tuesday to deny the allegations firmly and announce the filing of libel charges against the journalist who reported them, the source who provided the documents, the newspaper that published the story, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, and a social media user who shared the article with the comment ‘interesting.’ The official described the allegations as ‘baseless, malicious, and politically motivated’ in a statement that ran to four pages and contained the word ‘orchestrated’ seven times.
‘I have devoted my life to public service,’ said the official, who asked not to be named in this article and then provided a prepared statement with his name in the header. ‘These allegations are an attack not just on me but on my family, my constituents, and the office I hold. I will not allow lies to go unanswered. The truth will prevail in the appropriate legal forum, which will take between three and seven years to convene.’
The Allegations in Question
The original report, published in a regional newspaper, cited documents obtained from the Commission on Audit showing that two infrastructure projects totalling forty-eight million pesos were reported as completed in project liquidation documents while being visible to residents of the relevant barangays as empty lots in which no construction activity had occurred or appeared to be planned. The official’s statement does not address the documents or the lots but notes that the journalist ‘has an agenda’ and that the COA documents were obtained ‘through irregular channels,’ a characterisation that COA has not confirmed.
The Journalist’s Position
The journalist, who has covered provincial government for eleven years, said she was ‘not surprised’ by the libel filing and noted that this is the fourth libel case filed against her by provincial officials in the past three years, the previous three having been dismissed at the preliminary investigation stage. ‘It is part of the beat,’ she said. ‘You report on public money. People file cases. You continue reporting. The cases take three years to dismiss. You continue reporting during the three years. This is journalism in this province.’
Press freedom information at Committee to Protect Journalists. Comedy: NewsThump.
SOURCE: http://prat.UK