Libel raps vs Tarlac journalist dismissed

TARLAC CITY — A local court has dismissed an 11-year-old libel suit filed by a Filipino-Chinese businessman against a community photo-journalist in the province.

In a 10-page decision by Judge Martonino Marcos, of Branch 64 of the Regional Trial Court in this city, there was no clear and convincing proof of malice on the part of the respondent, photo-journalist Ver Buan, who works for the local weekly Tarlac Forum.

Buan was sued by Reynaldo Cano Chua after a photo of the unfinished multimillion-peso Tarlac Sports Complex in Barangay San Isidro in this city was published in the Tarlac Forum on its Aug. 20-26, 1992 issue.

Chua, who was the vice president of JECCA Builders, the local construction firm who built the structure, sued Buan for the caption’s reference to his Chinese descent and association with former Gov. Mar Un Ocampo III.

Chua also complained that copies of the said issue of Tarlac Forum were distributed during a meeting of the Rotary Club of Tarlac, of which Chua is a leading figure.

"This bad publicity has the object of destroying (my) reputation and ridicule (me) before the bar of public opinion," Chua then said in his complaint.

But according to Judge Marcos in his decision on the case, "It should be noted here that the complainant (Chua) is deemed (as) a public figure, he being a contractor of government projects remunerated with public funds."

As such, the judge said that Chua "could be the subject of public comment as long as he is involved in a public issue."

The paper's late publisher, Charlie Abagat, was also sued by Chua along with Buan but the court dropped the charges after Abagat’s death in August 1998.