TV5 head: ABS-CBN ‘desperate’

"Desperate."

This is how TV5 President and CEO Ray Espinosa described ABS-CBN and its legal team when they raised an "undisclosed relationship" between him and the wife of the judge hearing the Kapamilya network's counterclaim case against Willie Revillame.

"It just shows how desperate the other station is, in terms of basically putting a stop to Willie Revillame, that they would stoop so low, and made an issue out of something that is not even relevant to the case. So it's very sad but it happens, you have a desperate client and you have a desperate lawyer who wants to win the case on the basis of a bad PR, bad publicity," Espinosa told Yahoo! Southeast Asia.

Espinosa also expressed his dismay over the recent negative and malicious statements of ABS-CBN against him. ABS-CBN lawyers alleged that the TV5 head did not divulge information about his past relationship with Atty. Angelita Ortega-Cortez, the wife of Judge Luisito Cortez.

Espinosa maintained that he has no existing ties with Ortega-Cortez, his colleague 18 years ago in a law firm.

"I think it was very unfair for them to raise that. This is how dirty the case has become. We were colleagues in a law firm where we both started out, which is Sycip law, and that was like 18 years ago. We were both senior associates who worked closely; we had many projects together so you build close relationships during that time. We were starting out as lawyers, and we were single. It's very unfair. And I don't know the judge himself, I've never met him, and TV5 is not a party to the Quezon City case and neither am I," he said.

Cortez is hearing the ABS-CBN's P487-M counterclaim suit against Revillame wherein TV5 or Espinosa is not a respondent.

However, Espinosa acknowledges that the sub judice law where parties are not allowed to comment while the case is being heard is not applicable to this specific case.

"Well sub judice kasi is not really enforced eh, in the sense that as long as you do not speak ill of the court, the court will allow you to talk in fact a good example is in the Makati case where the sub judice rule was raised by the lawyers of ABS-CBN and the judge said 'Well I won't enforce it because there's also the freedom of expression and speech that we need to guard against so I will allow parties to talk to the press. You just have to be also mindful of your decorum, and you do not insult the court and the judge."

Apart from the P486-M counterclaim suit before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court as a result of his appeal to rescind his contract from ABS-CBN, Revillame is also facing a separate P127-M copyright infringement case in the Makati Regional Trial Court. The case, which also named TV5 and Espinosa as co-respondents, focuses on the alleged illegal use of ABS-CBN's intellectual property in segments of Revillame's "Willing Willie," which bares resemblance to the defunct "Wowowee" noontime program.

ABS-CBN had long wanted to inhibit Cortez from the counterclaim case, wherein he previously denied the Kapamilya network a temporary restraining order against the airing of "Willing Willie" due to its pending breach of contract case against Revillame.

After the denial of the TRO, ABS-CBN charged, Cortez "shut down his court to defendant ABS-CBN's urgent application of injunctive relief, giving Espinosa, ABC and plaintiff Revillame a sigh of relief."

Cortez also granted Revillame a P426 million bond in his breach-of-contract case against ABS-CBN, which charged the judge of bias and partiality. ABS-CBN even claimed in a press release that the bond contains Revillame's "forged signature."

Revillame's signature on the bond, ABS-CBN claimed, was different from his signatures on other court documents in the case.

Meanwhile," Willing Willie" continues to air and has been gaining considerable ratings ever since Revillame transferred to TV5.