NBI now trying to find uploader of Kho video

MANILA, Philippines – Investigators of the 'Hayden cam' case have shifted their focus to finding whoever uploaded on the Internet the sex video of actress Katrina Halili and Dr. Hayden Kho. To trace the culprit, the National Bureau of Invetigation has asked the help of a US-based Web site hosting firm, according to Palmer Mallari. executive officer of the NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD). "There are denials and conflicting statements so we need to go farther, like the technical aspects. We are focusing on the initial upload. And then we can apply for search warrant," Mallari said on Sunday. Last Friday, the NBI filed a charge of violation of Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act against Kho before the Department of Justice (DOJ). In her complaint, Halili said the spread of the video had caused her "psychological distress, emotional anguish, public ridicule, and humiliation." Belo not off the hook The NBI is not ruling out the possibility of including Dr. Vicki Belo as an accessory to the complaint based on the statement of businessman Eric Johnston Chua that he gave the master copy on a computer hard disk of the Kho sex videos to Belo. In that statement, submitted last Thursday to the NBI, Chua said he had no copies of sex video because he had already deleted it even before the sex video of Halili circulated on the Internet. He denied having anything to do with the uploading of the video. In an earlier interview, Halili vowed to pursue the case until the identification of the person or persons behind the upload of the sex video on the Internet were unmasked. At a press conference presided over by NBI chief Nestor Mantaring, Halili's lawyer, Raymund Palad, said Chua, pointed to Belo as the one who told her to copy the sex videos of Kho. "After copying the sex videos, he gave it to Dr. Belo and was instructed to delete the sex videos in the laptop of Kho. So he has no copy at all and the master copy (hard drive) is in the hands of Belo," Palad said. Doctor-patient affair According to the NBI, the recording of the sex video of Halili and Kho was made in a room of the Holiday Inn at the Ortigas Center in Pasig in September 2007. In her statement to NBI, Halili said she met Kho sometime between June and July 2007 when she went to the Belo Medical Group to have liposuction, which was incidentally performed by Kho. Their courtship started soon after thay meeting with an exchange of text messages until they finally became sweethearts in August 2007. Halili decided to end her relationship with Kho out of respect for Belo but they continued to exchange text messages. In January, 2008, she decided to end the relationship for good despite Kho’s insistence of a reconciliation. Adjustment disorder and depression The NBI filed the case against Kho partly on the basis of the results of a psychological evaluation made by its Neuro Psychiatric Division (NPD). According to the results, Halili was found to be suffering from an adjustment disorder with a depressed mood. The NPD recommended that Halili undergo psychotherapy. Halili insisted that she did not know that the sex act was recorded and that she lost television projects and endorsements even before the actual release of the sex video. Vital element in the probe Last May 29, the NBI requested the Senate for a copy of transcript of Senate hearing containing the testimonies of Kho and Halili. The transcript of Senate hearing would form vital part of bureau’s on-going probe, according to Vicente de Guzman III, chief of the NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD). An official who refused to be named said Chua remained a important ot the probe. "Siya iyong pinaka-vital sa lahat [He's the most vital of all]," the official said. The NBI official also subpoenaed Dr. Mark Herbert "Bistek" Rosario of the Makati Medical Center, another figure implicated in the case. NBI director lawyer Nestor M. Mantaring earlier stressed that the bureau would not touch the drug issue arising from the sex video controversy. That will have to be the responsibility of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). "My understanding is that the PDEA will investigate if the personalities involved here are drug users or not," Mantaring told reporters. - GMANews.TV