Another case in defense of press freedom!

By now everyone already knows that Atty. Norberto B. Quisumbing Jr. a.k.a. NQJR has filed a P15.9 million civil damage suit against my person for the articles we wrote about him. Call it timely that this suit comes just when the Philippine Star just celebrated its 21st year in publication, while The Freeman celebrated its 88th year in the service to Cebu. This suit is a warning to all journalists that if anyone writes negative stories about NQJR they would be dealt with severely, with a damage suit.

All can I say is, this suit is merely to harass me and prevent me from writing about NQJR and he’d get a hefty P15.9 million if I lose this case. I would have had more respect for NQJR if he filed a one-peso suit, which would show that he is not after my money! But whatever it is, Press Freedom must be defended at all cost especially from the rich and powerful like Mr. NQJR. But the Truth shall prevail!

In his complaint, he calls me a “Kibitzer” or a hanger-on to his son and that I never worked for any company under Norkis. If I didn’t work in Norkis, why then did he embrace me and welcomed me as a “Norkisan” when I joined them? To be totally honest about it, I don’t need to prove that I worked for his son Luis Quisumbing who asked me to join his company Transfarm & Co. when we were looking for a car company to bring to Cebu. Transfarm had its offices in the Norkis building in Mandaluyong when I worked with them for a year until I resigned. I returned only later to be a consultant for Transfarm. But even that he denies!

NQJR can go into name calling all he wants. Instead of calling me a kibitzer… he should have called me his servant or “muchacho” because that’s what NQJR thinks about the people who work for or help them. I can only ask the Lord to forgive NQJR for he doesn’t know what he is doing in filing this suit against me. This will certainly be a media circus!

If Transfarm was not part and parcel of Norkis, how come NQJR signed the memorandum of agreement between Daewoo Motors Corp. and Transfarm & Company during the State visit of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos; witnessed no less than Pres. Ramos himself, DTI Secretary Rizalino Navarro, Rep. Raul del Mar and Flagship Projects Chair Lito Osmeña at the Hilton Hotel in Seoul Korea in 1993?

Me a kibitzer? Then another kibitzer is Norkis Executive Vice-Pres. Estanislao Balbona who worked for Norkis for 33 years from 1965 to 1998. He rose from a mere production engineer into his last position as Executive Vice-President of Norkis, but in 1992 he was transferred to Transfarm when the car business that I helped bring in was about to be operational.

What happened to Mr. Balbona? In 1998, Norkis filed criminal case against him for estafa, claiming that he absconded P3.9 million supposedly to pay to Custom for importation of 149 units of Chrysler cars. These vehicles were released on a tentative liquidation after paying only 3% duties. This is a far cry from the 40%, which Transfarm was supposed to pay because they did have import authority from the Board of Investments (BOI).

But instead of being grateful to Mr. Balbona for saving his company millions, they filed a case against him on allegedly trumped up charges. He was convicted for 20 years last Feb. 23, 2007, but his case is still on appeal with the Court of Appeals, hence I cannot even write further about his case. I visited Mr. Balbona secretly at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) when he was incarcerated. I could only pity my partner in Daewoo, whose innocence I can vouch for! I know that Mr. Balbona would never risk his reputation and the huge retirement pay that was due to him for the 33 years he worked with the Norkis Group. But all that he lost!

This is exactly what NQJR does to people loyal to him. Another fellow who helped NQJR is David Odilao, former Customs Collector of Cebu, whom NQJR also filed a case to recover a Cherokee Jeep that was assigned to him. But that is another story. But I do know that Boy Odilao helped Norkis a lot during his time at the Cebu Customs. Odilao can give you that story!

At this point, allow me to thank the so many friends who texted and called me offering their support, even to the point of appearing in court during the hearing of my case. This is another test case in defense of Press Freedom. NQJR is a known personality in Cebu and the public has the right to know the whole truth about him. On August 26,2005 he was bestowed a Doctor of Humanities Honoris Causa by my alma mater, University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR) an award questioned by his own sibling Wesy Quisumbing. This too is another story NQJR doesn’t want people to know!

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