She said, he said

Who won’t be enraged to see and hear actress Katrina Halili tearfully denouncing cosmetic surgeon Hayden Kho for the sex videos that came out at the internet showing her coitus acts with her ex-boyfriend? This man is not only a kiss-and-tell guy but also a pervert of the highest order.    

As the rest of the story is unfolding before us and the other side turned up to explain and counter rebut the charges, it has become a “she said, he said” battle. We are at least getting a clearer picture of the whole sex video mess. Since it is spiced with kinky sex, this generated public interest that it does not deserve.

This otherwise private and personal affair became a national drama before us. Thanks to actor-turned politician Sen.Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. who exposed to the whole world this sordid affair in a privilege speech at the Senate last week. Clothed with parliamentary immunity, Revilla denounced at the Senate floor the culprit and identified him as Dr.Hayden Kho. In a press release issued by his office to Senate reporters, Revilla named Katrina Halili as the “victim” he referred to in his privilege speech.

In fact, the next day, Halili went to Revilla’s office and supposedly provided her with lawyers to file the criminal complaint against Kho before the National Bureau of Investigation. She also subsequently lodged a petition for the suspension of Dr.Kho’s medical license by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

The NBI summoned Dr. Kho to give his side on the complaint of Halili for psychological violence under Section 5 of RA 9262, or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act. The NBI also summoned Kho’s known girlfriend, fellow cosmetic surgeon Dr. Vicki Belo and their common friend Eric Chua for their alleged unauthorized manufacture and distribution of the same sex videos that included Halili and other women. 

Actually, long before these sex videos turned up at the Nets and later into DVDs, these have been the fodder of showbiz rumor mills at the height of the much talked about break-up of the Belo-Hayden May-December affair. I’ve heard most about these rumors from the radio/TV talk show programs of Lolit Solis who happens to be the movie talent manager of both Sen. Revilla and Halili. Like a movie script, the plot thickens.

What were talked about in blind items and innuendoes in showbiz talk shows on TV and radio were finally blown wide open to the public when Sen. Revilla took it up for national discussion at the Senate floor. Trying to justify giving undue interest into this purely showbiz matter to be tabled as an item of national legislative agenda, Revilla called upon his fellow Senators to act with dispatch on his long pending bill in Congress, Senate Bill No.12 or the proposed Anti-Pornography Act.

Obviously, Revilla’s pet bill numbered SB 12 appears to be one of the first bills filed but has been languishing at the legislative mills in this Congress. With so many much more urgent bills pending on their plate, Revilla questioned the priorities of his Senate colleagues for not including in the order of their legislative priorities his proposed Anti-Pornography Act in Congress.

What could be a masterful act of crisis public relations management, Kho found a very good defense lawyer for his losing case. Losing because he’s really a loser for engaging in such abnormal activities for an otherwise normal person like him. 

Faced with a formidable foe, Kho has secured the services of equally popular and highly credible women’s rights advocate and lawyer Lorna Kapunan. Kho’s lawyer is the president of the Stop Trafficking Filipinos, a cause-oriented group promoting women and children’s rights and engaged in anti-pornography campaign.

Reacting to the adverse reactions to her accepting Kho as client with her reputation as a staunch women’s rights advocate, Kapunan pointed out this is not a gender crime but Kho is equally entitled to his human rights. “My accepting (Kho’s case) is conditioned to his admission of guilt to the perversity of his acts.” So far, Kapunan has made her client to publicly admit his guilt and apologized out of his “deep remorse” over his very strange hobby of keeping a video library of his sexcapades.

Like any other women, Kapunan admitted she was also appalled at Kho for such “sick thing to do” of taking videos of his sex acts with his lovers, including his live-in partner Dr. Belo. But what surprised her more is while people questioned her decision to accept Kho’s case and yet the same people asked her for copies of those sex videos.

Kapunan has taken a very big risk in accepting the case of Kho who, of course, does not have public sympathy. On the other hand, by bringing up this case before the bars of public opinion, Sen. Revilla has naturally exposed himself to questions over his political agenda. Revilla, who is in his first term as Senator, has not made secret his plans to seek higher elective office. He has indicated his desire to be drafted by his Lakas-CMD partymates to be their official candidate for vice president in the coming May 2010 elections.

Thus, Kapunan attacked the lawmaker for “propagandizing” himself on this issue instead of legislating the necessary laws needed to address the problem. She raised the issue of “exploitation” of this sex video, not just by her client Kho on his victims but politicians as well and the people themselves with media making hay over this “love story” with nasty twists. 

After talking and seeing her client, Kapunan said, she is convinced that Kho is willing to face the consequences of his act. Kho has also “voluntarily” suspended his medical practice. Kho told Kapunan he has been undergoing psychological and spiritual counseling since December last year when his relations with Halili first came out in public that led to his break-up with live-in partner Dr. Vicki Belo.

While her client has admitted his guilt for taking the videos himself, Kapunan clarified, though, that Kho claimed innocence on the uploading at the Nets and the distribution of the same pornographic materials. Kho will also file charges in court against his friend Eric Chua who allegedly stole from him his private video collection of his intercourses with women.

Once it reaches the court, the “she said, he said” word war will become a matter of evidence as to who can substantiate the truth, or lack of it.