Ballos asks court to junk P2 M libel suit filed by Bolante
ROXAS CITY — Blocktime commentator Abe Ballos asked the court that the P2 million libel suit filed by former Agriculture Usec. Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante against him be dismissed for it is obviously baseless and for lack of merit.
In his 3-page counter-affidavit which he filed last Friday, Ballos denied having maliciously made such imputations against the person of Bolante tending cause dishonor, discredit or contempt, as he was only airing a personal observation derived from the factual circumstances, done in good faith and without any sinister or evil motive whatsoever to bring to the attention of the public some legitimate issues and concerns which are of public interest—all in the pursuit of his profession and of public service.
“That complainant’s allegations that I have made ‘a defamatory attack against his character, reputation, honesty, integrity and virtue, that caused him to be exposed to public hatred, contempt, humiliation and ridicule’ are all false, baseless and unfounded, hence the same are devoid of any factual and legal significance vis-à-vis the quoted transcription supposedly of a portion of my radio program,” Ballos said.
Last month, gubernatorial candidate Bolante filed a criminal charge for libel against Ballos of Patag, Lawa-an, Roxas City, a radio commentator of the program “Ang Kamatu-oran” aired over Bombo Radyo-Roxas every Friday.
According to him last October 2, 2009 he personally heard Ballos’s libelous remarks against his person over his program at Bombo Radyo-Roxas.
Bolante said that Ballos’s broadcast was a malicious imputation against him of a crime, or a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstances tending to cause his dishonor, discredit or contempt, in reckless disregard of whether such imputations are true or false, as it portrayed him as a criminal, a thief of the people’s money; criminally guilty of corruption, of corrupting not only the local public officials but of corrupting the students as well.
Bolante claimed that Ballos also said that he pollutes the minds of the youth, teaching these students how to adopt a corrupt system of governance; criminal guilty of bribery, for distributing the money. “Abe Ballos had accused me of stealing from the government’s coffers not only to the local officials but to the students of the Capiz State University, in exchange supposedly for their votes this 2010 elections; and in that sense, a criminal of guilty of vote buying, albeit unmindful or without any sensitivity at all on my part the misfortunes that has befallen upon our countrymen in Metro Manila, by reason of the recent typhoon,” he added.
“On account of said defamatory attack against my character, reputation, honesty, integrity and virtue, I was exposed to public hatred, contempt, humiliation and ridicule. Such that, I suffered wounded feelings, moral shock, besmirched reputation, serious anxiety and similar injuries,” Bolante said in his affidavit of complaint.
Bolante, who was accused as the brains behind the P728 million fertilizer scam, denied he is guilty of the hullabaloo saying that he has never been convicted in court.
