Plinky Recto. INQUIRER file photo
Actress and television host Marie Roxanne “Plinky” Recto has won a bitter custody battle for her 7-year-old son against her erstwhile common-law husband, Mayor Magdaleno Peña of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental.
However, it was only a partial victory for Recto. While granting her custody of the child, the appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision to dismiss her application for a protection order against Peña.
Ruling in Recto’s favor on the custody issue, the appellate court said the law “explicitly confers to the mother sole parental authority over an illegitimate child.”
“She has the right to keep him in her company. She cannot be deprived of that right and she may not even renounce or transfer it except in cases authorized by law,” it said in a 12-page decision.
“Permanent custody over the illegitimate minor child … is awarded to (Recto),” it said. “(T)here is no question … (Recto), being the mother of and having sole parental authority over the minor child, is entitled to have custody of him.”
However, the appeals court upheld the Mandaluyong City court’s decision to dismiss Recto’s appeal for protection against Peña. The justices ruled that Recto’s claim that she was physically abused by Peña did not stand up in court, noting the testimony of witness Dr. Teresita Sanchez contradicted her allegations.
Sanchez attested that there was “nothing in the medico-legal report that would show” that Peña, a lawyer, hit his former live-in partner on the left side of her head as Recto alleged.
Court records showed that Recto, sister of Sen. Ralph Recto, met Peña sometime in 2000 when the latter represented her in the annulment case she had filed against her husband.
A year later, Recto and Peña started living together. Soon after, she gave birth to their love child.
In her July 12, 2005, petition for a protection order, Recto said her relationship with Peña turned sour when he started subjecting her to emotional, verbal and physical abuse.
At one point, she said he shouted invectives at her while he physically assaulted her in front of their housemaids. Under duress, she said Peña forced her to sign a document waiving her right over their son.
According to Recto, Peña also mauled her, twisted her arms and sat on her back while holding her head upward. In another incident, she said he slapped her several times and “banged” her head “three to four times on their house’s hard floor.”
But the court said Recto “failed to refute” Peña’s defense that it was “strange for somebody whose head had been banged and neck and back injured … to go about her normal routine after the alleged mauling incident.”
Peña cited that Recto even went to a beauty parlor and hosted a TV program a night after the said violent confrontation.