THE Supreme Court is set to come out before the weekend with an administrative circular wherein a judge in libel cases may rule for payment of a fine instead of imprisonment.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno yesterday said after inducting officers and members of the Financial Executives Institute that the circular will be an "interim measure."

Puno said the circular should not be mistaken for a bill decriminalizing libel which is pending in Congress because the guidelines simply direct judges to prefer the payment of fines instead of imprisonment in case of a conviction.

Puno said the Court decided to come up with such a circular after reviewing libel cases and finding out that some were committed "with honest intention."

In a draft circular obtained by reporters, the SC said judges should bear in mind that the circular "does not remove imprisonment as an alternative penalty for the crime of libel."

It stated that the judges may, "taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of each case, determine whether the imposition of a fine alone would best serve the interests of justice or whether forbearing to impose imprisonment would depreciate the seriousness of the offense, work violence on the social order, or otherwise be contrary to the imperatives of justice."

The Court further stated that should only a fine be imposed and the accused be unable to pay the fine, there is no legal obstacle to the application of the RPC provisions on subsidiary imprisonment.

Senate Bill 1403 proposes to decriminalize libel and makes it punishable only by a fine ranging from P200 to P6,000, in addition to the civil action which may be initiated by the offended party.

The bill was authored by Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Aquilino Pimentel and Loren Legarda and endorsed by the committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero at the opening of the 14th Congress July last year.

In criminal libel, a convicted person faces up to six years in prison and a fine of up to P6,000.

Estrada has said the crime of libel has been abused by influential people, especially in government, as a tool of repression.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has said the libel law has been abused and exploited to harass media practitioners, tramples on the basic rights to a free press and to free expression and opens the door to abuse of authority.

The media groups cited First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s filing of libel cases against 46 journalists since 2003. Arroyo asked his lawyers to drop all the cases in May last year.