MANILA, Philippines?The Department of Justice has directed the Quezon City prosecutors? office to file a slander case against GMA Network executive Wilma Galvante in the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court.
The DOJ issued the order after granting a petition for review filed by talent manager Annabelle Rama-Gutierrez, who sought a reversal of a July 24, 2009 ruling by assistant city prosecutor Ronald Torralba junking her complaint against Galvante, vice president of the entertainment division, for lack of probable cause.
Gutierrez claimed that Galvante maligned her in front of her ward, actor JC de Vera, in February 2009 in for saying she was not fit to perform her duties and obligations as a talent manager.
In a resolution signed by then Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, the DOJ gave weight to De Vera?s affidavit in which he detailed his conversation with Galvante at her office at the GMA Network office in Quezon City.
De Vera said Galvante asked him questions and made negative comments about his manager, Gutierrez, and his management contract.
The actor claimed Galvante told him that over the years, the station tolerated Gutierrez because she would pull out her talents whenever she didn?t like a project.
In granting Gutierrez?s petition, the DOJ said the Quezon City prosecutors? office did not faithfully reproduce the pertinent portions of the affidavit of De Vera.
?We find this lapse noteworthy because it totally changed the import of De Vera?s statements,? the resolution read.
The DOJ added that the matters raised in both complainant?s and respondent?s pleadings were evidentiary in nature and could be properly threshed out in a full-blown trial.
?We found the petition of Gutierrez meritorious. From the statement of De Vera, it is not difficult to see the words, in the context expressed by respondent, are calculated to induce the witness to suppose and understand that the person against whom they were uttered is guilty of some vice sufficient to impeach her (Gutierrez) honesty, virtue or reputation as a talent manager,? the DOJ said.
