A MAKATI regional trial court has dismissed the P10 million class action suit filed by journalists arrested while covering the Nov. 29 standoff led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim at the posh Peninsula Manila Hotel.
Judge Reynaldo Laigo said the police order for journalists and other civilians then inside the Manila Peninsula to leave the hotel was “lawful” considering the “dangerous situation” at the time.
Laigo said the journalists who “disobeyed” the order issued by Metro Manila police chief Director Geary Barias were liable for a criminal offense. “(B)ut they were so lucky as none had been initiated against them,” he said.
Lawyer Harry Roque, the plaintiffs’ counsel, said the ruling ran against jurisprudence and represented the “biggest blow to our cherished civil liberties to date.” He said they would appeal the decision.
Laigo said the handcuffing of five journalists, who are among the petitioners in the class action suit, and their subsequent “processing” and release by police at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig were “in accordance with the police procedure.”
He was referring to Ellen Tordesillas, Charmaine Deogracias, Ashzel Hachero, James Galvez and Vergel Santos.
The journalists rounded up following the Manila Pen siege have said they were arbitrarily arrested without probable cause, and were not formally charged or informed of their rights by the authorities.
Tordesillas said, “Arbitrary detention of reporters as what happened in the Manila Pen was an assault not only on the journalist’s basic human rights but more so to press freedom.”
She said she would continue the fight for press freedom and against repressive police measures despite her dismay over the ruling.
Tordesillas also said the “decision undermines our ability to perform our duty of informing the public but also deprives the public of the right to know and be informed truthfully of government matters that affect them.”
In his five-page ruling, the Makati judge declared that the statements made by government authorities in the aftermath of the standoff were not attempts to curtail press freedom.
Civilian and military officials had said journalists who “ignore or interfere” in police operations deserve to be arrested or charged.
The statements were issued by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, then Armed Forces chief Hermogenes Esperon, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Philippine National Police chief Avelino Razon and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.
Roque said the Supreme Court, in its decision on Chavez vs. Gonzalez (G.R. No. 168338, Feb. 15, 2008) which dealt with the airing on radio of the “Hello Garci” tapes, found that Gonzalez violated freedom of the press in his statements which were similar to those he aired in the Manila Peninsula standoff.
The lawyer said he could not understand why the lower court ruling differed with that of the high court in a very similar case.
“The Supreme Court found that such was unconstitutional. We do not see why Judge Laigo could not apply the same prohibition in the case of the Gonzalez advisory on the Manila Pen incident. Note the strong similarities: Both statements were worded legally, quoting provisions of law and legal action, both statements were issued to the owners of media establishments, and both were not explicitly worded in such a way that one could literally extrapolate prior restraint from the statements,” he added.
(Ellen Tordesillas is a trustee of VERA Files. Three other trustees—Yvonne Chua, Booma Cruz and Chit Estella—are plaintiffs in the class action suit.)