The powerhouse media outfit, The Bohol Chronicle, was a recipient last week of the biggest libel case ever filed within the living memory of community newspapers, this time, the complainant was asking for a whooping P700 million in damages. This was the second libel case the paper is facing in a span of two weeks. With the same complainant as in the first, Benjamin Aggenstein, who struts around as an honorary consul of Sierra Leone, a war-torn country in West Africa, filed the libel charge against the Chronicle last August 2, 2013. Named respondents of the case were Zoilo “Bingo” Dejaresco III, BC publisher, Peter Dejaresco, its editor, and an unnamed writer of the paper.

In his first complaint-affidavit, Aggenstein who alleged to be part owner of a real estate company in Panglao known as Aggentine Builders, said he was “terribly destroyed and damaged my name, person, reputation, integrity and social standing as a result of a publication that saw print in the newspaper in its June 9, 2-13 issue”. The malicious imputation gave rise to the first libel case. According to the complainant, as a result of the publication, he suffered sleepless nights, mental anguish, serious anxiety, besmirched refutation, wounded feeling, moral shock and social humiliation. The news story detailed of an alleged shooting range in his subdivision resulting in the seizure of “firearms and ammunitions basing upon a police report”. “I did not in any manner own an illegal shooting range nor illegally possess firearms within my office or place of business”, Aggenstein said in his complaint affidavit. When sought of its reaction regarding the twin libel cases, BC management responded that libel to a newspaper is always part of the territory.

BIGGEST LIBEL CASE

As to the second libel case, the German national, as in the first, invoked a United Nations (UN) Resolution concerning the kind of treatment accorded to diplomatic officials. What apparently piqued the foreigner’s ego was the Chronicle story headlined “Consul sues BC editors, writers that appeared in its July 28 issue. Among others, the news story detailed that a German national who claims to be an “honorary consul of Free Town Sierra Leone, West Africa “has sued two Bohol Chronicle editors and one of the paper’s journalists for libel and demanded P 1 million damages in relation to a previously published news item that only reported the police’s raiding of a shooting range allegedly owned by the complainant. According to the same story, Aggenstein who goes around as an ambassador or as an honorary consul while dabbling in real estate development, is now the subject of a criminal and civil case filed by disgruntled business partners and a car rental company. It was learned that a certification issued by the Security and Exchange Commission and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board further cast doubts on the integrity and legal standing of companies identified with Benjamin Aggenstein.

COMPLAINANT’S ANSWER

In answer to the paper’s allegations, Aggenstein in behalf of his company Aggentien Builders, said it has all the necessary permits for the construction and development of residential houses presently offered for sale. According to the complainant, because of the news item, he was not able to get the income of about P4 million on July 28, 2013 from customers because they just called to cancel “our appointments in order to make payments for the house and lot presently offered for sale by Aggenstein Builders. Claiming to be a business partner and top marketing manager of Aggenstein Builders, he said he was entitled to get a total income of P500 million from the company. “But how will I get said amount when no one ever dared to call me to buy a house and lot since the above-quoted article published by the Bohol Chronickle”? he asked As a result of the alleged malicious publication, the foreigner is asking the city prosecutor’s office for the Dejaresco brothers to pay Aggenstein the sum of P700 million.