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Republic of the Philippines |
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES}
Quezon City

RECISTRATION UNIT
SEVENTEETH conGress L_BWLS AND INDEX SERVICE

First Regular Session

685

HOUSE BILL NO.

Introduced by: REP. RAUL V. DEL MAR

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The attached Bill seeks to provide a specific venue of action libel cases
against a community journalist, community publication or community broadcast
station.

There is no question - and nobody disputes this that the right to one's
reputation and honor is as much a constitutional rights as the passion of life, liberty
and property. Indeed, “it is one of those rights necessary to human society that
underlie and whole scheme of civilization. Law and jurisprudence recognize and
protect the value of such reputation and subject one who attacks it, by slanderous
words of libelous publication, to the full criminal and civil sanctions.

However, there is likewise the reality — this is difficult to question if not
undeniable — that libel, whether filed as a criminal or civil action, is likewise used as a
convenient legal tool to harass journalists, especially the community newspaper and
broadcast practitioners. This is so because, under the present rules, the complainant
or offended party, if he is a public officer, can file the complaint in Manila if his office
is in Manila or in the office outside Manila if his office is located there. If he is a
private person, the venue is his place of residence at the time of the commission of
the offense. Thus, a newspaper or broadcast station in Aparri or Jolo, Cebu or Davao
can be made to answer a complaint filed in Metro Manila where the complaint
resides although the subject, the issue or the incident published — in law the cause of
action - did not arise in Metro Manila.



This situation is not changed by the fact that — under the same rule on venue
— the complainant or offended party has the option to file the action in the Regional
Trial Court of the province or city where the libelous article is printed or first
published because, in reality and in practice, the offended party usually does not
exercise that option since he chooses the venue that is as far away from the principal
office of business or work of the defendant or accused as possible.

The prevailing legal rules on venue thus place these community journalists
and local broadcasters in a situation where they have to answer complaints or
charges filed, rightly or wrongly, in remote or distant places, deliberately filed far
away from their place of business or work, In this context, the element oppression is
there. The toll of inconvenience, financial or otherwise, is often more onerous and
burdensome than the penalty or fine prescribed by the law. This may even lead to a
miscarriage of justice in cases where the accused or defendant fail to appear because
of the distance and travel constraints.

The criminal or civil action may eventually be thrown out by the court but
the damage has been done; it already punished the community journalist and his
publication by the excessive cost of litigation and inconvenience outside the principal
office of publication or business of the said journalist or publication.

The community journalist and his organization, mostly financially
handicapped and already afflicted with all sorts of pressures and threats, need
immediate relief from the present rule venue of libel cases, whether criminal or civil,
which create an opportunity for oppression. In substance, thereof, the proposed
legislation seeks to provide the relief sought, to correct this unfairness by closing this
loophole that is often exploited or taken advantage of by offended parties.

It may be stressed that this bill passed on third and final reading in the House
of Representatives during the Thirteenth & Fourteenth Congresses but was not
approved by the Senate, for lack of time upon congressional adjournment.

In view of the foregoing, approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

‘RAUL. DEL MAR


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

685

HOUSE BILL NO.

Introduced by: REP. RAUL V. DEL MAR

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR THE VENUE OF THE CRIMINAL AND CIVIL ACTION IN LIBEL CASES
AGAINST COMMUNITY JOURNALIST, PUBLICATIONS OR BROADCAST STATIONS

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 4. Venue. - The criminal or civil action in cases of libel against 2
community journalist, publication or broadcast station shall be filed in the Regional
Trial Court of the province or city where the principal office or place of business of
the said community journalist, publication or broadcast station is located: Provided,
That the civil action shail be filed in the same court where the criminal action is filed.

The term “community journalist, publication or broadcast station” shall be
understood to mean a journalist or news medium that operates within a limited area
of circulation or broadcast in a city, province or region, as defined under existing
laws.

SEC. 2. Separability Clause. - If any part of this Act shall be held to be
unconstitutional or invalid, other provisions hereof which are not affected thereby

shall continue to be in full force and effect.


SEC. 3. Repealing Clause. - All laws, decrees, rules and regulations or parts
thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, amended or
modified accordingly.

SEC. 4. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) national newspapers of
general circulation.

Approved,