S1L13 – The Courts: Where trolls and bashers cannot prevail
I am biased for litigation, but on a practical level I would do everything to try to avoid going to trial. It’s too costly, stressful and time-consuming. And you never really attain closure until you’ve finally reached the Supreme Court usually SEVERAL years down the line.
However, there are situations where only a trial can expose the ultimate truth that tends to get concealed by the “fog of war.”
Anyone who just stumbled into this raging BENECO-NEA war who has not followed its developments since Day One might get the impression this is about a small electric cooperative defying the Philippine Government.
That is certainly what NEA wants the public to believe. Projected that way, any law-abiding Filipino would—in fact, must—do the patriotic thing, stand with the government and despise BENECO. It becomes very easy to red-tag anyone who says anything in favor of BENECO. Then the media strategists of NEA can pat themselves in the back and say “mission accomplished.” It is in the melee of chaos, confusion and anarchy that propagandists and trolls thrive best.
You cannot fight trolls. You shouldn’t fight trolls. Fighting with trolls is like picking a quarrel with a skunk. It won’t matter who is correct, you will both smell the same. The thing is, a skunk is used to smelling like one, so only you end up being bothered.
Trolls bash me all the time, even on my own wall. Their comments don’t get removed because my wall has no filters. (funny but the bad comments just disappear, removed by the trolls themselves I suppose)
In a pissing contest of “let’s-see-how-much-of-this-you-can-take” usually the average troll can only dish out a few dozen or so profanities. They can only think of so many ways to say I’m ugly, before running out of expletives. Buy a thesaurus, you dummies.
That is about to change. This Friday, preliminary conference (more or less like a judicial pretrial) starts for the “gross insubordination and indirect contempt” case filed by Atty. Ana Marie Rafael against seven BENECO directors and GM Mel Licoben. I’m the last to be added to the legal team and my first advise was NOT to ask for postponement for this Friday’s hearing.
One of the most important parts of pretrial is the so-called exchange of admissions and stipulations.
Finally—without the distracting noise of cantankerous media hacks and trolls—we can get Atty Rafael, through NEA counsel, to OFFICIALLY admit or deny her qualifications, and be willing to put these admissions or denials on record. In short, no more tap-dancing around the issue
If we can do that, there’s going to be no way to unfocus the issue again, like what’s going on right now. Once the FACTS are established, it’s just a question of applying the law moving forward.
THAT is what I like about litigation. There are Rules to follow. You don’t have to shout.
“Be careful of the sub-judice rule.”
No, no, no—the “subjudice rule” (which is not really a ‘rule’ in the Rules of Court, but a principle of equity in the Code of Professional Ethics)—is meant to prohibit parties from arguing the merits their case publicly. It’s not meant to generally prohibit the reporting of cases.
This is especially significant when one of the protagonists is seeking to enforce a government order, as Atty Rafael is. That imbues the case with public interest.
The 1987 Constitution guarantees the right of the people to information as a matter of principle (Art. II, Sec. 28 on State Principles), “Subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law, the State adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest.”
…and as a matter of right (Art III, Sec. 7 on the “Bill of Rights”), “The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized.”
That’s one more thing I love about trials. There’s no room, or tolerance for ignorance—because ignorance of the law excuses no one.
After Friday, I’ll give you one guess on who you think will ask for postponement of the NEXT hearing—or maybe even move for suspension of the proceedings altogether.
It will not be me.
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”