Court junks damage suit vs GMA-7, broadcaster

MANILA, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 126 of Caloocan City recently dismissed a civil complaint for damages against GMA Network and Imbestigador host Mike Enriquez.

Complainant Ronald Virola alleged that the Imbestigador episodes aired on Dec. 14 and 28, 2002 falsely imputed the crimes of rape and obscene publication upon his person.

The episodes carried a story on Virola, whose house in Caloocan was raided for allegedly containing regulated or prohibited drugs as well as videotapes of naked women who seemed to have been drugged and raped.

Virola sought P1.2 million in damages from GMA, but Judge Lorenza Bordios, in a Nov. 10 decision, said the complainant failed to prove that the episodes were made with malice. The judge said Enriquez’s utterances were based on affidavits of witnesses and court orders filed against Virola.

Bordios said GMA’s broadcast of the story is protected by freedom of the press and that the issues on the use of drugs as an instrument in rape involving minors and in making of obscene publications are matters of general interest, which the public has the right to be informed.