HATAW! D'yaryo ng Bayan hatawtabloid.com
ni Pilar Mateo
NANG maglabasan ang mga nakaiintriga na namang items tungkol sa mga bagong iginagawi ng aktres na si Claudine Barretto na dumaragdag na naman sa mga bagay na makasisira rito, inusisa namin ang abogado niyang si Atty. Ferdinand Topacio.
Over dinner, kasama sa mga itinatanong namin kay Atty. ‘yung mga bago na namang isyung ibinabato sa kanyang kliyente. Pero, hindi nag-detalye si Atty. dahil maglalabas naman daw sila ng statement hinggil sa bagay na ‘yun.
At ang nasabing statement ay ipinadala nga ng counsel ni Claudine agad-agad:
“The robbery case filed against me before the Regional Trial Court in Marikina is but the latest in a long line of harassment cases made upon the instigation of my estranged husband, Mr. Raymart Santiago, and my sister Ms. Gretchen Barretto, who have provided material and legal support to my former house help against whom I have filed criminal cases after they tried to steal things from our house upon the behest of other parties, as per their own admissions as recorded on video. The hand of these two persons are very much in evidence in the fact that Mr. Santiago has testified in favor of those whom I have charged with qualified theft, and in the direct intervention of Ms. Gretchen Barretto’s personal legal counsel in some of the said cases.
“It now appears that members of my own family who have an axe to grind against me for imagined wrongs, will continue to collude and will stop at nothing to intimidate and harass me as a result of the cases I filed against them to protect my children and to stop the physical, mental, psychological and financial abuse being heaped against me and my children. All of their previous malevolent acts, including the spreading of false rumors against me and my legal counsel, Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, are intended to wear away my will to fight for the legal rights of my children and myself.
“AS MY ENEMIES RAISE THE SPECTER OF MY POSSIBLE ARREST AND INCARCERATION, MY FOREMOST CONCERN IS NOT THE DANGER OF JAIL, BUT HOW TO EXPLAIN TO MY CHILDREN THE SITUATION WHERE THEIR FATHER, WHO PUBLICLY CLAIMS TO LOVE THEM, CAN ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN ACTS THAT DEMEAN THE PERSON OF THEIR MOTHER AND HUMILIATE HER NUMEROUS TIMES IN PUBLIC, WHICH ACTS HAVE HAD A PROFOUNDLY HARMFUL EFFECT ON THEIR COMMON CHILDREN – SABINA AND SANTINO – AND WHICH HAVE SUBJECTED THEM TO DEEP EMOTIONAL PAIN AND TRAUMA, AS WELL AS CRUEL TEASING AND BULLYING, CONSIDERING THAT THEY ARE AT PRESENT BEING RAISED BY THEIR MOTHER AS A SINGLE PARENT, WITHOUT ANY MATERIAL SUPPORT FROM THEIR FATHER.
“If Mr. Santiago thinks he is doing our children a favor by unjustifiably destroying my reputation in his obsessive attempt to gain custody, then he is sadly and badly mistaken. Far from endearing himself to his children, he is alienating them – perhaps irreparably – by showing that he is capable of anything to hurt their mother.
“Since Mr. Santiago has not contributed a single centavo for the upkeep of the children, and has admittedly taken for himself monies from our joint bank accounts, then there is a very real chance that I will have to be jailed for the trumped-up charges dreamt of by Mr. Santiago, Ms. Gretchen Barretto and their lawyers, as I would rather use the money I have for the children’s education and other necessities instead of using it for the P100, 000 bail. In fact, I have just paid for the tuition fee for our children for the coming school year, and I will need more funds for them to continue the high-quality education I have committed to provide for them, and school records will show that they are excelling in their respective schools. This, I repeat, is because in spite of Mr. Santiago’s hypocritical avowals of affection for our children, he has not given any support whatsoever for close to a year. If that is how he shows his love for his children – by ruining their mother and trying to send her to jail – then Mr. Santiago is a twisted person indeed.
“In the face of these efforts to continually destroy me, I will repeat that I will not stop fighting to redress the abuse and violence done to me continuously for many years by Mr. Santiago, and to protect my children. In so doing, I will now have to lift the limits I have imposed upon myself at the beginning not to publicize certain matters regarding Mr. Santiago and those who have connived with him to taint the good name I have built for myself since I started in show business. From now on, I will feel free to let the public know Mr. Santiago’s background to show the people his motivations for doing what he has been doing against me. I will also expose those who are helping him in his quest to prejudice my good name, regardless of previous bonds of personal friendship and professional relationships, including doctors, lawyers and bankers. To protect my name and the name of my children for the future, I will have to tell all and let the public judge who is telling the truth and who is peddling lies.”
