Judge drops contempt charges against editor, radio broadcaster
A Cebu judge who said he was unfairly criticized in the media last year has dismissed the indirect contempt charge against broadcaster Leo Lastimosa and SunStar editor Pachico Seares.
Judge Raphael Yrastorza of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 said he lost records to prove his case as well as the interest in pursuing the charge against the two media practitioners.
In a Dec. 22 order, the judge said he lost documents which he could have used as evidence against Lastimosa and Seares.
“In short, the Court is left with nothing to stand on its contempt charges against the two respondents. Coupled with the fact that due to the passage of time, the Court has had enough time pondering on the incident and had a re-thinking of its stand. Added to it the spirit of the season is in the air and the inconvenience in the new court setting at Quimonda (building) somehow has dulled the enthusiasm of the Court in pursuing this incident further,” said his three-page order.
Copies of the order were sent to Lastimosa and Seares on Monday.
Yrastorza earlier cited the two journalists for indirect contempt of court for making critical comments against him in his ruling of a libel case against Lastimosa.
Yrastorza convicted Lastimosa of libel for his column in the Freeman against former governor Gwen Garcia.
The radio dyAB station manager -columnist was fined P6,000 with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency on Aug. 30, 2013.
Lastimosa, who was ordered to pay Garcia P2 million for moral damages, has appealed the decision.
The libel case stemmed from Lastimosa’s Arangkada column entitled Si Doleng Kawatan published in The Freeman in 2007.
The judge also took issue with Seares for a column that saw print on Sept. 13, 2013 and charged him with contempt of court for “making a mockery of the Judgment of this court by insinuating that the court is biased in its judgment of the criminal case.”
Seares is the public and standards editor of Sun. Star Cebu, where he writes a column. He was the paper’s former editor in chief.
The judge said Lastimosa “lambasted” him in his radio dyAB program by calling the judge biased as one who knew Garcia and was receiving an allowance from the Capitol.
The judge required both to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for insinuating that the judge was biased because he had received an allowance from the Province of Cebu.’
“This does not only destroy the integrity of the presiding judge of this court but all other judges as well as the Court of Appeals justices who incidnetally may have been given allowances from both the Province and the City of Cebu,” said the judge.
In his defense, Seares said he had no intent to violate the sub-judice rule or ill will against the judge.
Lastimosa also pointed out that no written record, tape-recording or electronic record was shown to him.
The judge in his order admitted he had none to show.
“The court does not have this,” he wrote.
He said he had affidavits of persons ho heard the statements made in radio dyAB and those who watched Lastimosa’s ABS-CBN TV program where he was anchor.
The judge said the documents were misplaced among the files when the Marcelo Fernan Hall of Justice was struck by an earthquake on October 2013. The transfer to the IT Quimonda Building made recovery difficult.
“The clippings and other documents kept by the Court on the statements of Atty. Pachico Seares were likewise not spared.”
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
