Prosecutor convenes hearing on child abuse cases vs Revillame

The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office has begun its preliminary investigation into the three child abuse cases stemming from the sexy dance a six-year-old boy performed on a game show aired on TV5 on March 12. Television game show host Willie Revillame is a respondent in all three complaints. Prosecutor Benjamin Samson convened the hearing with the complainants, respondents and their lawyers present. [See: The crying dancing boy incident, a time line] Children’s welfare group, Stop Child Rights Exploitation in Media (SCREAM) filed the first complaint. They charged, along with Revillame, ranking executives of TV5, which airs the game show Revillame hosts. Secretary Corazon Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) filed the second complaint while the third came from concerned citizens Froilan Grate, Peachy Bretana, Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, and Catholic priest, Fr. Robert Reyes. Revillame’s lawyer, Atty. Leonardo de Vera, alleged that Prosecutor Samson was “handpicked" to handle the case. Samson said it was de Vera’s comments that were “disturbing". The cases were raffled to Samson according to the dockets of the QC Prosecutor’s Office. De Vera came to the hearing without a counter-affidavit to the three complaints. Neither did Revillame’s co-respondents in the SCREAM case filed theirs. Lawyers of TV5 said that their clients will file their counter-affidavits on May 23. Samson set for May 30, one clarificatory hearing for all three cases. After that, the QC Prosecutor’s Office will decide within 60 days on whether or not the cases should be filed in court. — ELR/VS, GMA News