Lawyer: ABS-CBN crew mauled Liddawa

Police Senior Inspector Jose Liddawa Jr. is expected to file charges today against the ABS-CBN crew who allegedly mauled him dawn of September 18, according to his lawyer Noel Archival.

Archival, in a telephone interview with The Freeman, said his client is filing charges against the TV crew after an ABS-CBN insider confirmed that the crew indeed mauled his client. Archival, however, said he is still contemplating though on whether to file serious physical injuries or direct assault against the TV crew.

Liddawa, apparently drunk as seen on the video footages shown by the network, was driving his car Tuesday dawn on the wrong side of the road when he crashed head on into an oncoming ABS-CBN pickup.

The video footages show Liddawa boasting that he was a policeman. He then attacked and punched members of the TV crew. However, toward the end of the footage, Liddawa was shown collapsed on the ground and later on helped and taken to a hospital by the crew themselves.

Reporter Ramil Paican and cameraman Joel Noel issued statements that bystanders mauled the policeman after seeing him harass the TV crew.

Archival, who was able to gather witnesses who can testify that the TV crew mauled his client and not bystanders, however, yesterday told The Freeman that an ABS-CBN insider confirmed the statements of the witnesses.

The lawyer said that just like the statements of the witnesses, who were owners of stores near the site of the accident, the ABS-CBN insider told him that it was Paican, Noel and the crew’s driver who mauled his client and not the bystanders as the network earlier reported.

Archival also said the source even confirmed that Noel was also drunk at the time of the incident and was even the one who taunted Liddawa.

The Freeman received word that there were five people inside that ABS-CBN crew cab at the time of the incident – Paican, Noel, two other cameramen and the driver. Noel and another cameraman were off duty at that time.

A source from ABS-CBN said that Paican, Noel and the driver are now under investigation and have been barred from field assignments while the investigation is ongoing. — Quennie S. Bronce and Flor Z. Perolina