Aquino libel case rejected by court
THE Court of Appeal has acquitted a newspaper publisher and a journalist of libel in connection with a story that president Corazon Aquino hid under the bed during a 1987 coup attempt.
In a 54-page decision, Associate Judge Jose de la Rama said the statement was fair comment on a public event and was made without actual malice.
The case gained international notoriety because Mrs Aquino was the first head of state to file libel charges against a journalist.
She also became the first Philippine president to stand witness in a criminal trial when she gave evidence against the accused - publisher Maximo Soliven and columnist Luis Beltran - on live national television and radio in February, 1991.
On the day the Beltran allegations were published, an angry Mrs Aquino took journalists to her bedroom in Malacanang Palace to demonstrate there was no way she could have hidden under the bed, which had wooden side panels.
Mrs Aquino said the allegation, which appeared in Luis Beltran's 'Straight from the Shoulder' column in the October 12, 1987 issue of the Star, undermined her role as president and commander in chief at a time when the country was still politically and economically unstable.
The Court of Appeal decision reversed an October 22, 1992 ruling of the Manila Regional Trial Court which sentenced the two men to four months in prison and two million pesos (HK$588,000) in damages.
Luis Beltran, who died of a heart attack on September 6, 1994 had said that his allegation was a figure of speech and that he had not intended to malign Mrs Aquino.
The Court of Appeal also ended Beltran's civil liability, which could have been passed on to his heirs, and it acquitted Mr Soliven because as publisher he had no control over articles written by senior columnists.
Mrs Aquino told the South China Morning Post during a recent interview that she had been commended by the Presidential Security Guard for her coolness under pressure during the coup attempt.
'Many of my advisers urged me to leave Malacanang Palace, but I decided to stay because, as was demonstrated in the case of president Ferdinand Marcos, once you leave Malacanang Palace, you lose the seat of power,' she said.
