If the circumstances as to where the libel was printed and first published are used by the offended

party as basis for the venue in the criminal action, the Information must allege with particularity
where the defamatory article was printed and first published, as evidenced or supported by, for
instance, the address of their editorial or business offices in the case of newspapers, magazines or
serial publications. This pre-condition becomes necessary in order to forestall any inclination to
harass.

The same measure cannot be reasonably expected when it pertains to defamatory material
appearing on a website on the internet as there would be no way of determining the situs of its
printing and first publication. To credit Gimenez’s premise of equating his first access to the
defamatory article on petitioners’ website in Makati with "printing and first publication" would spawn
the very ills that the amendment to Article 360 of the RPC sought to discourage and prevent. It
hardly requires much imagination to see the chaos that would ensue in situations where the
website’s author or writer, a blogger or anyone who posts messages therein could be sued for libel
anywhere in the Philippines that the private complainant may have allegedly accessed the offending
website.

G.R. No. 184800               May 5, 2010

WONINA M. BONIFACIO, JOCELYN UPANO, VICENTE ORTUOSTE AND JOVENCIO

PERECHE, SR., Petitioners,
vs.
REGIONAL TRIAL COURT OF MAKATI, BRANCH 149, and JESSIE JOHN P. GIMENEZ,
Respondents.

The crime of libel, as defined in Article 353 of the Revised penal Code, has the following elements: (1)
imputation of a crime, vice or defect , real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status or
circumstance; (2) publicity or publication; (3) malice; (4) direction of such imputation at a natural or
juridical person, or even a dead person and (5) tendency to cause the dishonor, discredit or contempt of
that person defamed. (Alcantara vs. Ponce, 517 SCRA 74; Insular Life Assurancce Company, Limited vs.
Serrrano 525 SCRA 400.

For an imputation to be libelous, the following requisites must be present: (a) it must be defamatory; (b)
it must be malicious; (c) it must be given publicity; and (d) the victim must be identifiable. Absent one of
these elements, a case for liable will not prosper. Diaz vs people, 523 SCRA 194.

In determining whether a statement is defamatory, the words used are to be construed in their entirety
and should be taken in their plain, natural, and ordinary meaning as they would naturally be understood
by the persons reading them, unless it appears that they were used and understood in another sense.
Diaz vs people, 523 SCRA 194.

Mere assertion that a person failed or refused to perform a contractual obligation does not, in and of
itself, injure the person’s business reputation or deprive him of public confidence; Malice is
characterized by a reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of one’s remarks. Insular Life Assurance
Company, Limited vs. Serrano, 525 SCRA 400
Publication, in the law of libel, means the making of the defamatory matter, after it has been written,
known to someone other than the person to whom it has been written. If the Statement is sent straight
to a person for whom its is written there is no publication of it. (Magno vs. People, 480 SCRA 276; Binay
vs. Secretary of Justice, 501 SCRA 312

Defamation, which includes libel and slander, means the offense of injuring a person’s character, fame
or reputation through false or malicious statements. (Binay vs Secretary of Justice, 501 SCRA 312)

If the matter is not per se libelous, malice cannot be inferred from the mere fact of publication, GMA
Network Inc. vs. Bustos, 504 SCRA 638.