‘… radio commentator Edito Mapayo was emerging from a cyberlibel hearing when police officers informed him of a bench warrant for missing last month a hearing for a different complaint.’
AT the 21st anniversary celebration of the enactment of Republic Act No. 9285, or the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres reminded the audience that prosecutors in the National Capital Region are mandated to mediate the civil aspect of libel and cyberlibel.
The law defines mediation as “a voluntary process in which a mediator, selected by the disputing parties, facilitates communication and negotiation, and assists the parties in reaching a voluntary agreement regarding a dispute.”
DOJ circular 031, dated June 19, 2023, also covers for mandatory mediation cases of bouncing checks and those under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Trial Court, Municipal Circuit Trial Court, Municipal Trial Court, and the Municipal Trial Court in Cities.
Undersecretary Andres, at the event last week in Quezon City, said this was possible as 200 NCR prosecutors had successfully completed ADR training conducted by the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution (OADR).
“More importantly,” he said, “we can successfully resolve cases even before the conduct of the preliminary investigation proper.”
On the same day, in the Caraga region, radio commentator Edito Mapayo was emerging from a cyberlibel hearing when police officers informed him of a bench warrant for missing last month a hearing for a different complaint.
Mapayo, who anchors two programs on 90.7 Birada FM Claver in Surigao del Norte, was detained by the Surigao city police.
The next day, his lawyer and a media colleague worked to secure his release, after the judge found merit in his explanation.
Two points.
The first is the readiness of media-citizen councils outside Metro Manila to mediate the same civil aspect of libel and cyberlibel cases filed against journalists like Mapayo. In July last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) OADR conducted a week-long, 60-hour comprehensive and customized ADR course for 40 representatives of these councils, including the Surigao del Norte Media-Citizen Council, of which Mapayo is a member. Mapayo is also chairman of the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
The other ADR-trained councils are in Agusan del Sur, Aklan, Batangas, Central Luzon, Cordilleras, Davao, Eastern Visayas, and Surigao del Sur. Except for that in the Cordillera, these were set up by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), the national organization of newspapers.
The media members include non-PPI members or non-newspapers for that matter. Non-media members include key sectors of their choice, but mostly local businesses, professors, faith-based organizations, and in some cases underrepresented groups like indigenous peoples, women and the LGBT.
The goals of these media-citizen councils are consistent with many of those promoted by the law.
The PPI is set to organize additional councils in Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and Tuguegarao cities, and Isabela and Bukidnon provinces. They will also undergo ADR training.
The other point is the decriminalization of libel and cyberlibel which are punishable with prison terms ranging from six months and one day to eight years, as computed by a local law firm.
Since 2004, legislators have been attempting to decriminalize libel. Reform efforts took a major step in 2012 when President Noynoy Aquino approved Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which made cyberlibel a crime “committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.”
Decriminalizing libel leaves the civil aspect, which mediation can address. We hope to support the decriminalization bills that will be filed in the 20th Congress.
Meanwhile, NCR prosecutors are mandated to mediate. And until prosecutors in the rest of the country are ADR-trained, existing media-citizen councils are ready to step up.
