Technicality halts libel case against PDI columnist, bosses

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court has granted the motion of a columnist and officers of a national newspaper for the court to quash the two information(s) filed in court in relation to the libel case filed against them by Angelica Aznar-Sierra. 

In a three-page order, RTC Judge Gabriel Moises said the defect in the information is substantial, which cannot be cured by mere amendment.

An information is an official document that stipulates the charges against an accused, which the prosecutor’s office filed in court to commence an actual hearing of a case.

“The motion to quash is granted and the two informations are quashed for lack of jurisdiction,” the order reads, adding, that amendments of the information to vest jurisdiction upon a court is not permissible.

Moises said the two information(s) failed to allege Sierra’s actual residence at the time the alleged libelous article was published. They also failed to indicate the place where the alleged libelous article was first published and printed, as required under Article 360 of the Revised Penal Code.

Sierra filed the libel case against Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Dolly Anne Carvajal, the paper’s publisher Isagani Yambot and managing editor Jose Ma. Nolasco.

The lawyer of the three filed a motion to quash the two information(s) elevated to court in relation to the libel case, saying they were “not sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the court for they failed to allege the proper venue in filing the action.”

Sierra, a member of Aznar clan in Cebu, accused the three of willfully, unlawfully and maliciously publishing in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Inquirer Libre a column with identical headlines “Amalia: At my age, I don’t need a man.”

In this article, which Carvajal wrote, actress Amalia Fuentes was alleging that her estranged husband was having an affair with a woman named Angie Aznar Sierra from Cebu. —  (FREEMAN)