FACTS:

A civil action for damages based on libel was filed before the court against
Borjal and Soliven for writing and publishing articles that are allegedly
derogatory and offensive against Francisco Wenceslao, attacking among others
the solicitation letters he send to support a conference to be launch concerning
resolving matters on transportation crisis that is tainted with anomalous
activities. Wenceslao however was never named in any of the articles nor was the
conference he was organizing. The lower court ordered petitioners to indemnify
the private respondent for damages which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
A petition for review was filed before the SC contending that private respondent
was not sufficiently identified to be the subject of the published articles.

ISSUES:
Whether or not the subject articles constitute qualifiedly privileged
communication?
HELD:
Yes, The rule on privileged communications had its genesis not in the
nation's penal code but in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution
guaranteeing freedom of speech and of the press. As early as 1918,
in United States v. Caete, this Court ruled that publications which are
privileged for reasons of public policy are protected by the constitutional
guaranty of freedom of speech. This constitutional right cannot be
abolished by the mere failure of the legislature to give it express recognition
in the statute punishing libels.
The concept of privileged communications is implicit in the freedom of the
press. As held in Elizalde v. Gutierrez and reiterated in Santos v. Court of
Appeals
To be more specific, no culpability could be imputed to petitioners for the
alleged offending publication without doing violence to the concept of
privileged communications implicit in the freedom of the press.
As was so well put by Justice Malcolm in Bustos: Public policy, the welfare
of society, and the orderly administration of government have demanded
protection of public opinion. The inevitable and incontestable result has
been the development and adoption of the doctrine of privilege.