Dear Atty. Angela,
I am a Human Resource staff for a company. When we dismissed a sales agent due to requesting unauthorized commissions from our clients, I was tasked to give a talk to all sales employees and reminded them not to follow what a certain sales agent did where he asked for illegal kickbacks and to remain faithful and honest to the company. The following week, I was told that the dismissed employee wants to file an oral defamation or slander case against me for damaging his reputation but I never mentioned his name and my act was done in the performance of my duties as an HR staff. Can there be a legal basis for the case he wants to file against me?
Zack
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Dear Zack,
In the case of Lopez v. People, G.R. No. 244111 (2022), the Supreme Court outlined the elements of oral defamation as defined and penalized under Article 358 of the RPC, as follows:
1) There must be an imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, status or circumstances;
2) made orally;
3) publicly;
4) maliciously;
5) directed to a natural or juridical person, or one who is dead; and
6) which tends to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of the person defamed.
Under the law, malice connotes ill will or spite and speaks not in response to duty but merely to injure the reputation of the person defamed, and implies an intention to do ulterior and unjustifiable harm. Malice is bad faith or bad motive.
In the case of People v. Manugue, G.R. No. 253239 (2022), for there to be a finding of malice, there must be intent to harm. However, in cases of slander, malice is generally presumed, except when the statement falls under privileged communication.
In your case, you did not mention the identity of the person. And even despite him being identified by those who knew him, it is evident that there was no malice to speak of since you merely gave a reminder to all the sales employees to not commit any violation against unauthorized commissions.
Certain instances of communication are considered privileged, meaning they cannot be the basis of a defamation charge. These include statements made in the performance of a duty, provided they are made in good faith, and comments made without malice in the interest of public welfare.
The dismissed employee failed to show that you acted with bad faith or with malice when you gave the reminder and that your speech is in the nature of a privileged communication which has no basis for filing a slander case against you.
Atty. Angela Antonio