Baguio journalist Frank Cimatu found guilty of cyber libel over Piñol post
Journalist Frank Cimatu has been found guilty of cyber liber over a Facebook post he made in 2017 about former Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol.
Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 93 found Cimatu “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” of cyber libel charges under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 filed by Piñol.
The Baguio-based journalist is sentenced to a minimum imprisonment of six months and one day and a maximum imprisonment of five years, five months, and eleven days. The Court also ordered Cimatu to pay Piñol P300,000 as moral damages.
In the 19-page decision dated Dec. 12, Presiding Judge Evangeline Cabochan-Santos said Cimatu’s post with the message, “Agri Sec got rich by 21 M in 6 months. Bird flu pa more!” has the intention to “injure the reputation, credit and virtue of Piñol and expose him to public hatred, discredit, contempt and ridicule.”
Cabochan-Santos added that Cimatu “made it appear” that the 2017 DA chief committed corrupt acts and gained ₱21 million within six months on account of a crisis in the country.
“Taking into consideration the words used by Cimatu and the subject Facebook post which appears to be an imputation of a crime, the same is defamatory and thus, satisfy the first element of the crime of Cyberlibel,” the decision read.
Cimatu argued that the post was made private since it was only published to be seen by his Facebook friends. However, the Court said this was immaterial as the post was made using the “public” setting.
According to the Court, Cimatu also failed to show that the post was done in good faith.
The Court also said Piñol had read the post and commented on the thread to explain his side of the story.
“Despite this, Cimatu did not relent in his actions, but went on to continue defaming the private complainant. This is a clear indication of the intention of accused to malign Piñol, no matter the cost, and is clearly proof of malice,” the decision stated.
Fellow journalists and many netizens expressed their solidarity with Cimatu and denounced what they called the weaponization of cyber crime law to harass and intimidate journalists.
Meanwhile Senator Risa Hontiveros has filed Senate Bill 1593 that seeks to decriminalize libel.
“Our libel laws have been weaponized to stifle very basic fundamental rights. These laws have been used to constantly attack many of our freedom, but particularly the freedom of the press,” Hontiveros said.
