MIL Assignment

Libel Case of Corazon Aquino versus Luis Beltran
An angry President Corazon Aquino, who has been fighting a public perception of weakness
and indecision, filed an unprecedented libel suit against a widely read newspaper columnist who
wrote that Aquino "hid under her bed" during an aborted Aug. 28 coup attempt. On the day the
column appeared, Mrs. Aquino filed a lawsuit against Mr. Beltran demanding 4 million pesos
in damages, the equivalent of $140,000.
In a separate development, police fired shots to disperse strikers today as workers began a
general strike for higher pay today, Reuter reported. Several thousand chanting, banner-waving
demonstrators marched in separate groups in different parts of the capital. Police reported 25
arrests, but the strike appeared to be largely ignored by Manila's 8 million residents.
Aquino, in a weekly radio broadcast, said she would declare martial law if it were "absolutely
necessary" and "for the greater good of the country."
Before filing the suit, Aquino took a reporter to her bedroom and showed how it would be
physically impossible for her to hide under the bed, which sits on a platform.
The columnist, Luis Beltran of the Philippine Star, wrote in this morning's edition: "The
president hid under her bed while the firing was going on -- perhaps the first commander-in-
chief of the armed forces to have done so."
Later today, the paper's afternoon edition carried an apology from Beltran. "I wasn't making fun
at (sic) her -- only expressing concern at the gravity of the situation, which had stopped being
funny."
Beltran said he was using the expression "hid under the bed" in a figurative, not a literal, sense.
He said he received his information from a published remark of Aquino's youngest daughter
Kris, who said the family was frightened during the shooting outside the presidential palace and
knelt down to pray the rosary together.
"If I have hurt her feelings, I hereby apologize and take back what I have said," Beltran's
statement read. "I don't think anyone can question how brave and courageous President Aquino
is."
At the city courthouse, Aquino told reporters, "I have always been a woman of courage. I don't
want the soldiers of the republic to ever doubt for an instant that their commander-in-chief is a
woman of courage that they look upon and respect."
Beltran, who also hosts two weekly talk shows, has been in trouble with the palace before. Last
year he lost his job as editor and columnist for the Philippine Inquirer after reporting incorrectly
in his column that Joker Arroyo, Aquino's former executive secretary, was the source who
leaked a government document to the communists. When, in his capacity as editor, Beltran
refused to print letters from Arroyo over the matter, the paper's owners fired him. Beltran claims
he was a victim of presidential pressure.
The presidential palace has shown increasing frustration with the local and foreign media. Wide
media access has been given to rebel military leaders who are trying to overthrow the
government. Last week, Aquino's press spokesman, Teodoro Benigno, announced that the
government had ordered the closing of three radio stations that were broadcasting
antigovernment propaganda.
Since firing Arroyo last month, Aquino has become more open to the press, granting interviews
for the first time since last fall.
In an interview on the NBC program "Sunday Morning Today Show," Aquino told Maria
Shriver that she was bothered by the criticisms. She also said people's expectations of her were
too high following the "people power" revolution that brought her to office 19 months ago.
The Philippines' Court of Appeals acquitted a MaximoSoliven and a former columnist Luis
Beltean of libel charges filed by former President Corazon 'Cory' Aquino when she was still
in power. In its 54-page decision, the Court of Appeals reversed the original guilty ruling of
the Manila Regional Trial Court because the article in question 'was a fair comment of a public
event and made without malice. ‘Looking for cover is not an indication of cowardice,' the
court said. 'It was an intelligent decision.' The Court of Appeals said the prosecution failed to
prove that Beltran had any knowledge whatsoever of Mrs. Aquino's bed.
SANAMAGAN
– Sanamagan is Pinoy (Filipino) slang for “son of a gun”.
Maximo “Max” Soliven died of acute pulmonary and cardiac arrest on Nov. 24 in Tokyo, Japan.
He was 77.
Before his death, Soliven was publisher and chairman of the board of The Philippine Star, which
he founded in July 1986 with the late Betty Go Belmonte, Art Borjal, and Tony Roces.
Editors in the Star recalled Soliven’s imposing presence as a publisher. “By phone, he checked up
on stories, took reporters, deskmen, and editors to task for slip-ups, but also offered praise for a
job well done,” according to an article in the Star.
Soliven was one of the country’s most widely read columnists. He began his “By the Way” column
in the pre-martial law The Manila Times and continued in the Star before he died.
“He wrote swiftly, and talked incessantly, too, expressing his thoughts without fear of anything or
anyone,” said Star columnist Domini Torrevillas.
Having covered eight administrations, Soliven often gave “unsolicited advice” to presidents and
used his trademark expression “sanamagan” in his columns.
For more than a decade, Soliven was a foreign correspondent. He covered the Vietnam war in 1954
and 1959 as well as the 1968 Tet offensive and the fighting in Laos and Cambodia. He was the
first journalist to interview then Brig. Gen. Suharto during the 1965 “Gestapu” coup in Indonesia.
In 1964, he had an exclusive interview with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on China’s detonation of
its first atomic bomb.
He also worked as a stringer for The New York Times and Newsweek and was columnist for South
China Morning Post and the Bangkok Post.
Soliven served as business editor of The Manila Times from 1957 to 1960. In the 1960s, Soliven
was editor and publisher of The Evening News.
Soliven was one of the first journalists to be arrested when martial law was declared in 1972. When
he was released, he was banned from writing and traveling outside Metro Manila.
After Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983, Soliven wrote articles critical of the Marcos regime.
Along with Eugenia Apostol and Belmonte, Soliven established the Philippine Daily Inquirer in
1985 and became its publisher.
He was named Journalist of the Year four times by the National Press Club and the Rotary Club
of Manila.
A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, Soliven earned his master’s in communication and
political philosophy from Fordham University in New York. He also took up post-graduate studies
at the Johns Hopkins University and Harvard’s School of International Studies. He was born on
Sept. 4, 1929.

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Libel Case of Corazon Aquino versus Luis Beltran

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