Court battle between Willie, ABS-CBN heats up

MANILA, Philippines - Television network ABS-CBN has asked a Quezon City court to immediately resolve its plea for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the airing of Willie Revillame’s new show on TV5 this Saturday.

As this developed, the television host claimed ABS-CBN has no legal ground to compel him to produce his contract with TV5 and insisted that the contract was “confidential” in nature.

In the ongoing legal battle between the host and his estranged former mother network, the latter filed an urgent ex-parte motion to resolve the network’s TRO petition after learning that Revillame’s show “Willing Willie” will start airing on Oct. 23.

Judge Luisito Cortez of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 is supposed to resolve the petition for TRO and other pending motions of both parties on or before Oct. 29. Such petitions and pending motions are related to the case filed by Revillame for the court to confirm his decision to end his contract with ABS-CBN and the network’s P486-million counterclaim suit against the host.

But ABS-CBN filed the urgent motion following reports that Revillame’s new show on TV5 will be launched on Oct. 23.

“The reason why the Honorable Court is not immediately acting on the TRO application as mandated by law and jurisprudence is because of the understanding that the parties will maintain status quo within the month of October to give the Honorable Court ample time to consider plaintiff’s Omnibus Motion dated Sept. 21, 2010,” ABS-CBN’s motion stated.

Revillame’s camp has denied such an agreement on the deferment of the show’s launch within the month.

In another pleading, Revillame’s camp filed a rejoinder, saying ABS-CBN has failed to state positively the existence of the documents sought to be produced for inspection, their materiality to the determination of issues involved and that the said documents are in his control or possession.

The host’s camp also said there was no more contract that binds him to ABS-CBN and that the latter has “absolutely no right to compel the production of documents or contracts outside of the already concluded or cancelled contractual relationship between plaintiff and defendant ABS-CBN.”