The Court of Appeals junked with finality the libel case filed by former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay against former Senator Antonio Trillanes over alleged payoffs made to “ghost senior citizens.”

In a two-page resolution, the CA’s Former Fourth Division held that Binay failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reconsideration of its 27 June 2023 decision acquitting Trillanes.

The court said Binay’s motion for reconsideration merely rehashed issues that the assailed decision had already passed upon.

Likewise, Binay was not able to prove that the court committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction, the CA added.

In the 27 June ruling, the CA affirmed a lower court decision which, in November 2020, granted the petition to demurrer to evidence filed by Trillanes.

A demurrer to evidence is a motion to dismiss a complaint against an accused for the insufficiency of evidence presented by the accuser. Once granted, the complaint is dismissed. If denied, the trial continues with the accused given the chance to present evidence.

The libel case stemmed from a 2015 online news article that quoted Trillanes accusing Binay of perpetrating a P100-million racket of paying non-existent senior citizens in Makati City, where he had served as mayor for a long time. Binay accused Trillanes of political assassination as a candidate in the 2016 presidential elections.

The Makati RTC held that the prosecution failed to present evidence to establish that Trillanes was the one who fed the said statement to the media. The court added that the media personality named as the article’s author was not presented to substantiate Binay’s claim.

While the Makati RTC said it was aware of Trillanes’ counter-affidavit submitted before the Department of Justice, wherein the former senator did not deny making such claim but only alleged that he could not remember the particular interview, the court said the prosecution failed to offer the said affidavit as evidence.