ALFONSO T. YUCHENGCO vs. THE MANILA CHRONICLE PUBLISHING CORPORATION | G.R. No. 184315 | November 25, 2009

ALFONSO T. YUCHENGCO vs. THE MANILA CHRONICLE PUBLISHING CORPORATION

G.R. No. 184315, November 25, 2009 

Facts

In his Complaint, plaintiff Alfonso T. Yuchengco alleges that in the last quarter of 1994, Chronicle Publishing Corporation ("Chronicle Publishing" for brevity) published in the Manila Chronicle a series of defamatory articles against him. In two of the subject articles (November 10 and 12, 1993 issues), he was imputed to be a "Marcos crony" or a "Marcos-Romualdez crony," which term according to him is commonly used and understood in Philippine media to describe an individual who was a recipient of special and underserving favors from former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and/or his brother-in-law Benjamin "Kokoy" Romualdez due to special and extraordinary closeness to either or both, and which favors allowed an individual to engage in illegal and dishonorable business activities. 

The subject articles insinuated that he personally and intentionally caused the failure of Benguet Corporation and that if even if he ever assumed control of Oriental, it would suffer the same fate as the former. According to him, at the time he assumed chairmanship of Benguet Corporation, it was already experiencing financial downturns caused by plummeting world prices of gold and unprofitable investments it ventured into. Moreover, one of the articles portrayed him as being an unfair and uncaring employer when the employees of Grepalife Corporation, of which he is the Chairman, staged a strike, when the truth being that he had nothing to do with it. And that if his group takes over Oriental, it will experience the same labor problems as in Grepalife. 

In their Answer, the defendants deny liability claiming that the subject articles were not defamatory since they were composed and published in good faith and only after having ascertained their contents. In any event, they claim that these articles are privileged and/or constitute reasonable and balance[d] comments on matters of legitimate public interest which cannot serve as basis for the finding of libel against them. They likewise alleged that they were acting within the bounds of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press. 

Issue

Whether or not respondent is guilty of libel. 

Ruling

In sum, this Court upholds the ruling of the trial court and the Court of Appeals that the subject articles contain defamatory imputations. All of the following imputations: (1) the labeling of Yuchengco as a Marcos crony, who took advantage of his relationship with the former President to gain unwarranted benefits; (2) the insinuations that Yuchengco induced others to disobey the lawful orders of SEC; (3) the portrayal of Yuchengco as an unfair and uncaring employer due to the strike staged by the employees of Grepalife; (4) the accusation that he induced RCBC to violate the provisions of the General Banking Act on DOSRI loans; and (5) the tagging of Yuchengco as a "corporate raider" seeking to profit from something he did not work for, all exposed Yuchengco to public contempt and ridicule, for they imputed to him a condition that was dishonorable. 

There is, thus, a presumption of malice in the case of every defamatory imputation, where there is no showing of a good intention or justifiable motive for making such imputation.In the instant case, there is preponderance of evidence showing that there exists malice in fact in the writing and publication of the subject libelous articles. When malice in fact is proven, assertions and proofs that the libelous articles are qualifiedly privileged communications are futile, since being qualifiedly privileged communications merely prevents the presumption of malice from attaching to a defamatory imputation. 

Neither is there any reason for this Court to reverse the findings of the trial court and the Court of Appeals that there was actual malice on the part of the respondents. As held by the courts a quo, Yuchengco was able to show by the attendant circumstances that respondents were animated by a desire to inflict unjustifiable harm on his reputation, as shown by the timing and frequency of the publication of the defamatory articles. Finally, even if we assume for the sake of argument that actual malice was not proven in the case at bar, we nevertheless cannot adhere to the finding of the Court of Appeals in the Amended Decision that the subject articles were fair commentaries on matters of public interest, and thus fell within the scope of the third type of qualifiedly privileged communications.  

In view of the foregoing, this Court is constrained to grant the instant Petition and reinstate the Decision of the trial court, as previously affirmed by the Court of Appeals in its original Decision. This Court, however, finds the award of damages in the total amount of One Hundred Million Pesos by the trial court to be rather excessive given the circumstances.