COSMETIC surgeons Manny and Pie Calayan eluded arrest after posting bail of P10,000 each relative to the libel case they are facing before the Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 7.
The couple, through their lawyer, posted bail on Sept. 19 after a judge issued the warrant for their arrest.
After posting bail, the couple were ordered released by Judge James Stewart Himalaluan.
He also set the arraignment on Oct. 17.
The judge issued the warrant for the arrest of the “celebrity doctors” relative to the libel case in court against them for allegedly maligning the reputation of their former clinic manager in July last year.
Prosecutor Maria Alice Lim-Ingles found evidence to charge the couple with libel, which stemmed from the complaint filed by May Anne Karen Calayan, who accused the doctors of besmirching her reputation in a letter sent to Cebuano businessman Michel Lhuillier.
May Anne, president of the board of Calayan Medical Group, Inc., said the couple told Lhullier that her clinics are not connected or affiliated with the respondents’ clinic—the Calayan Surgicentre. The Calayan Medical Group have clinics in Cebu at the Oakridge Business Park on A.S. Fortuna St. in Mandaue City.
In their letter to Lhuillier, Manny and Pie told the businessman not to be “misled” by the Calayan Medical Group.
The couple alleged that the complainant’s clinic is using their name and their company’s name to get clients. Replying to the charges, Manny and Pie said that they hired the complainant as their clinic’s operations manager.
When they filed for trademark application with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the couple said they discovered that a similar registration for the Calayan Medical Group had been filed with the agency. This prompted the couple to file a complaint for unfair competition, copyright infringement, damages and injunction against the complainant before the IPO. The doctors said there was no malice meant when they informed Lhuillier about the Calayan Medical Group.
They said that the libel complaint filed against them was mere harassment. (GMD)