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By James Konstantin Galvez Reporter
THE President’s husband, Jose
Miguel Arroyo, said on Wednesday that he is set to file another
motion before the Makati Regional Trial Court for the dismissal of
the P12.5-million class suit filed against him by journalists and
several media entities for actual, moral and exemplary damages along
with the cost of the litigation.
The motion is strengthened by the
failure of 36 journalists’ to comply with the court’s order for
them to produce the stories they wrote about Mr. Arroyo.
“The motions were in lieu of
the subpoenas issued against the complainants as ‘hostile
witnesses.’ Arroyo said that to avoid further delay in the
proceedings, the journalists should just present all the articles
they had written about him and to answer a set of questions about
the libel cases, among other subjects,” said Ruy Alberto Rondain,
lawyer for Mr. Arroyo.
Earlier, Rondain threatened to
cite for contempt eight journalists for their failure to attend the
hearing on June 22 at the sala of Judge Zenaida Laguilles of Branch
143 of the Makati Regional Trial Court in which he wanted to present
them as “hostile witnesses.”
The complainants argued that they
did not receive the subpoena since it was addressed to the office of
Roque and Botuyan Law Firm instead of their home addresses as
required under court rules.
But Rondain said the journalists,
besides failing to submit to the court the subject articles, also
failed to answer the interrogatories and questionnaires despite the
court order.
He added that the journalists’
failure to comply with the court order is a ground for dismissal of
the case.
Harry Roque, counsel for the
complainants, argued that the court acted on Arroyo’s motion even
if it failed to comply with the three-day notice rule, among other
procedural lapses though in her order, Laguilles said the court
would not be hindered by technicalities, saying that the case had
been dragging on for so long without it even entering the trial
stage.
The case has had six hearings
since it was filed on December 26, although it has yet to progress
to the pretrial stage with several motions pending before the lower
court including the complainant’s petition to terminate the
presentation of evidence by Arroyo.
Arroyo has sought to dismiss the
case. He filled a petition before the Court of Appeals questioning
the authority of the lower court to hear the case while arguing that
not all the complainants who joined the class action suit were sued
by him.
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