Rama prods court to cite Montenegro for contempt over malicious tweets
By Julie M. AurelioPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Annabelle Rama. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Now it’s Annabelle Rama’s turn to complain about Nadia Montenegro’s tweets.
The feisty talent manager is urging a Quezon City court to cite Montenegro for indirect contempt following the latter’s comments on the lifting of arrest warrants against Rama for libel.
Rama filed the civil complaint Friday last week, which was raffled off early this week to Judge Santiago Arenas of Regional Trial Court Branch 217.
The tweet was posted on June 18 after Judge Eleuterio Bathan of Regional Trial Court Branch 92 recalled the warrants he issued a week before.
According to Rama’s eight-page civil complaint, the tweet read: “May MILAGRO na naman na nangyari. I’m gonna get to the bottom of this! #mgabayaran.”
This public expression of Montenegro’s displeasure on Twitter, Rama claimed, tended to ridicule her and the Quezon City court which recalled the arrest warrants after Rama surrendered herself to the court.
The talent manager and Montenegro are locked in a fierce feud which stemmed from allegations that Rama committed child abuse in managing the showbiz careers of Montenegro’s teenaged daughters.
The cases pending before Bathan are the 14 counts of libel that Montenegro lodged against Rama for allegedly malicious statements made on Twitter and in TV interviews.
Rama argued that Montenegro should be cited for indirect contempt as her tweet “tainted the honor and integrity” of the court and Rama.
She noted that the timing and tenor of the statement “point to no other conclusion that she was referring to the recall of the warrant.”
“Worse, it puts the honorable RTC of Quezon City Branch 92 in an awkward position, that is, the statement implied that the said honorable court received payment, prompting the recall of the arrest warrant.”
The outspoken Rama said Montenegro’s “impetuous statement” should not be tolerated, and that the act shows her “proclivity for mocking and disrespecting” the court and Rama.
The tweet, Rama added, had wrongly painted her as a litigant who resorts to extra-legal means.
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