InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines – Lawyers for journalist and TV5 host Ramon Tulfo have submitted to the Pasay City prosecutor’s office a short video clip showing the camp of celebrity couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto had hit him first in their May 6 airport brawl that sparked lawsuits and an investigation by the MTRCB.
Tulfo’s lawyers hope the prosecutor can use the short clip, aired on TV5 last Friday, in order to make a determination on whether to elevate to the court the charge of physical injury that Tulfo filed against the couple, their friend Edward Atilano and several John Does for ganging up on him after he refused to surrender the cell phone he used to capture Claudine’s hysterical venting on Cebu Pacific ground crew over the offloading of her luggage.
The couple countersued, accusing Tulfo also of physical injury—they claimed he first kicked Claudine and hit Raymart, sparking the mauling—as well as of child abuse, since their minor children were “traumatized” by the incident.
Two days after the incident, amateur video posted on YouTube had shown the Santiago camp beating up Tulfo, who fell to the floor.
The Santiagos insisted, however, that showed only the second part of the incident, and appealed to people who may have videotaped the melee to come forward to prove that Tulfo threw the first punch.
However, the second video clip, aired Friday, showed a man in pink--identified by Tulfo’s lawyers as Atilano---hitting Tulfo in the head as he was talking to Claudine.
In response to the second video, the lawyers for the couple asked the public not to rush to judgment on the basis of a short clip that they said cannot tell the full story.
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