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Friday, April 02, 2004
Sonny to sue accuser on rape raps for libel
MANILA -- Sen. John Osmeņa is on the warpath.
"Based on these facts, my lawyers intend to file libel, perjury and falsification charges against this complainant," said Osmeņa.
He added that GMA 7 may also be sued "for collaborating with the complainant in giving wide coverage to the obviously stage-managed lie."
In Cebu City, his ex-wife rose to his defense Thursday, saying she knew the man well enough to assure that he is neither a homosexual nor capable of rape.
Senator Osmeņa Thursday showed to mediamen a copy of Senate journal dated Feb. 5 to prove that he was in the Senate plenary hall that day; attending the session from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight.
"Kung ang journal na ito ang pagbabasehan (If this journal would be used as basis). I was in the Senate that day. This would prove him (a) liar," Osmeņa said in a press conference.
Osmeņa said that on Feb. 5, he attended a Liga ng mga Barangay program, then spent the whole afternoon in the Senate.
Afterwards, he had dinner that lasted "very late" with Reps. Simeon Kintanar, Antonio Yapha and Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, Toledo City Vice Mayor Aurelio Espinosa and several barangay captains from Toledo City.
He said he was attending a Senate session that day in discussing the alleged falsification of public documents by former National Archives chief Ricardo Manapat. The discussions lasted until 12 midnight.
But he admitted that around 7:30 p.m., he left the session hall to attend an important dinner with three congressmen and two barangay captains in Roxas Blvd.
"After an hour, I returned to the Senate and joined the debate on the controversial Manapat report," Osmena added.
A certain Diego Gomez, a resident of Pasay City, earlier filed a rape case against Osmeņa, as he claimed he was sodomized by the senator inside a room of a Tagaytay hotel last Feb. 5.
Osmeņa strongly denied the accusation.
Osmeņa's staff said the complainant gave a false address and his accusation was "a pure political lie, solely intended to sabotage" his reelection bid.
Osmeņa said the accusation against him is a part of a "cooked-up political hatchet job" to eliminate him from the administration Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan para sa Kinabukasan (K4).
Osmeņa said he received reports that Lakas officials allegedly want him out of the K4 senatorial slate.
No matter what happens, Osmeņa said he would not leave K4 and he will continue to support President Arroyo.
Although his press statement makes no mention of it, an ABS-CBN Manila report also said the senator suspected former president Fidel V. Ramos of orchestrating the scandal.
Ramos is reportedly endorsing former Sec. Heherson Alvarez who is now running as independent candidate for senator
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Osmeņa is a victim of black propaganda.
"This is black propaganda as usual and I think Senator Osmeņa will defend himself at the proper forum," he said, adding that Osmeņa would be able to hold his ground.
Below the belt
"That's really a blow below the belt. It's so obviously fabricated. I was married to him for seven years. That's not true, he is not gay," Lucy Urgello Miller, Osmeņa's ex-wife, told reporters in an interview.
Apart from Miller, three of the senator's Cebuano allies in the House of Representatives also defended him Thursday against a "male escort's" accusation of rape.
Miller, mother of Cebu Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeņa, called on political opponents of her former husband to stick to issues, instead of coming up with baseless accusations.
She described the alleged rape complaint against the senator as "ludicrous and desperate."
"If they have something against him, stick to the issues, don't make something like that. That is awful," Miller added.
In separate interviews, Cebu Reps. Simeon Kintanar (2nd district) and Antonio Yapha Jr. (3rd district) said it is difficult to believe the charge Gomez has hurled against their political boss, because it does not seem to fit his character.
An aide of Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (6th district) also confirmed they had dinner on the night of Feb. 5.
Yapha, in a phone interview, said that in his years of dealing with the reelectionist senator, Osmeņa neither comes across as one who would inflict violence on other people nor a homosexual.
Sympathy
Besides, Yapha noted that accounts of the alleged rape seem to be conflicting.
In one account, Gomez claimed to have been handcuffed to a bed and raped by Osmeņa.
But in an interview over GMA 7 last Wednesday, a man said to have been Gomez said he got angry when the senator allegedly inserted a finger into his anus when this was not part of their agreement.
Speaking as a doctor, Yapha said the usual practice of sex between a homosexual and a hired male commercial sex worker would involve the sex worker "using" the "client," not the other way around.
Yapha and Kintanar, in an interview over radio dyLA Thursday, agreed that such charges are usual during election period.
As in the past years, he said he is confident that the case against Osmeņa will not affect his reelection bid.
"Basin hinoon maluoy ang mga tao niya nga grabe na ni nga butang-butang (People may sympathize with him because these allegations are just too much)," Yapha further said.
The senator can't expect any sympathy, however, from his cousin, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeņa.
In a radio dyLA interview Thursday morning, the mayor refused to comment on the allegations against the senator, saying he is not privy to Sonny's affairs.
"I am not an expert in the affairs of gay circles so I would not know if the rumors that he is gay are true. He never tried to do anything to me but I have long heard about rumors that he is gay," the mayor said.
He said he would not show sympathy to the Cebuano senator because Sonny is also not sympathetic to him.
"Let him handle his own problems, anyway there is a protest. The law is the law. I just don't want to comment about this because I am the city mayor but I can't give special knowledge about this issue," the mayor said. JPM/JMR/GC/KMF/With LCR
(April 2, 2004 issue)
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