DAGUPAN CITY - False report destroys all presumptions.

With this statement, the City Prosecutor’s Officer here on Monday (July 31) determined that the Lyceum Northwestern University was a victim of an untrue and unfair publicity and gave due course to a libel case filed by LNU president Gonzalo Duque against high-ranking officials of the Commission on Higher Education and a reporter of a national daily.

In a resolution, City Prosecutor Pelagio Palma indicted for the crime of libel Dr. Catherine Q. Castañeda, assistant director, Office of Programs and Standards (CHED); Dr. Fely Marilyn Lorenzo, chairman, Technical Committee on Nursing Education (CHED); and Jonathan M. Hicap, reporter of the Manila Times.

CHED chairman Dr. Carlito S. Puno and Dr. William Medrano, executive director of the Office of Programs and Standards, were earlier included as respondents but Duque withdrew the complaint against them for insufficiency of evidence.

The Manila Times publisher and editor-in-chief Fred dela Rosa, escaped indictment after Palma found no sufficient evidence against him.

The case stemmed from the publication of a news story in The Manila Times last March 15, 2006 that quoted CHED officials as saying LNU was among the 37 “very low performing nursing schools and among those whose nursing courses will be gradually phased out.

In his complaint, Duque said that the school has not received any prior notice from CHED or from the Professional Regulation Commission regarding the inclusion in the list.

He added that the LNU College of Nursing had 256 passers during the December 2005 Nursing board examinations and that one of the school’s successful examinees, Michelle Lim Aglubat, placed 7th.

Just last June, three of its successful examinees, Russel Abalos, Benedict Mayo and Melody Aquino, placed 7th, 8th and 9th respectively, while 236 others passed the examinations.

Duque also said that LNU was granted deregulated status on November 23, 2003 as shown by the Award of Distinction of the CHED.

Duque also urged that the timing of the publication was suspect, considering that the school year at that time was about to end and the enrollment for the next school year was to start shortly thereafter.

In their defense, Hicap and Lorenzo invoked the doctrine of privileged communication, while Castañeda said that remarks on the conduct of public officers, which are related to the discharge of their official duties, will not constitute libel if the speaker proves the truth of the imputation.

Hicap added that because of the privileged character of his news article, malice should not be presumed.

But Duque said in his reply that the news item in question is not covered by the rule on qualified privileged communication because it was not a fair and true report; it was not made in good faith and it had malice that eroded the reputation and goodwill of the LNU.

In giving due course to the case, Palma gave credence to a letter that the CHED chairman earlier sent to Duque saying that LNU is not among the colleges and universities whose Nursing program is being monitored and reassessed by CHED for possible phase out.

Palma also concurred with Duque’s argument that the published report is not true and fair and said that Dr. Castañeda and Dr.Lorenzo have not been authorized by the CHED to make public statements about any school to be phased out, or closed.

“Hence, the news item is not covered by the rule on qualified privileged communication,” Palma said.

He added that Hicap should have exerted more efforts in ascertaining the truthfulness of the report from the CHED chairman before publishing it.