Ex-NegOcc rep, wife file libel raps over newspaper article

BACOLOD City – Former Negros Occidental 1st District representative Julio Ledesma IV and his wife, actress Assunta de Rossi, have filed separate libel cases against a columnist, editors and officers of a daily newspaper.

The couple lodged their complaints before the Prosecutor’s Office in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental last Friday.

They asked P140-million damages from case respondents Philippine Star columnist Victor Agustin, president Miguel Belmonte, editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan, managing editor Romel Lara, and business editor Marian Vego.

“We confirm the filing before the San Carlos City Prosecutor’s Office on May 18, 2018, of libel cases versus Victor Agustin and his editors in the Philippine Star, for what Agustin wrote and the newspaper published on June 5, 2017,” said Atty. Pretty Celiz, one of de Rossi’s legal counsels.

Celiz told the Negros Daily Bulletin that the case has “something to do with the writer’s ‘Money Go Round’ column,” which her client deemed “libelous and damaging.”

Celiz, de Rossi’s other lawyer Stephanie Kate Arevalo, and Ledesma’s lawyer Ranulfo Javelosa, however, did not elaborate on the contents of the article published in the paper’s business section.

“Agustin made accusations that are not true. He published these, and it affected the status, name and respect of people to Jules and Assunta,” Celiz added.

Panay News has yet to reach Agustin and the other accused for comment as of this writing./PN

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