Repost: Legal Team of Willie Revillame Preparing for Trial on His Child Abuse Charge

Image courtesy of www.interaksyon.com

Source: www.interaksyon.com

Following the recent decision of the Court of Appeals to affirm the earlier ruling of a Quezon City regional trial court that found probable cause to indict Willie Revillame for violation of the anti-child abuse law, a representative of the embattled TV host’s legal team says he is ready for a “full blown trial.”

“We received last Friday the Order from the Court of Appeals (CA). It denied the Motion for Reconsideration to our Petition for Certiorari where we asked the CA to find no probable and to dismiss without need of trial the case filed by the City Prosecutor for child abuse. The CA held the RTC judge has the discretion to proceed with the trial proper,” said Atty. Leonard de Vera in a text message to News5’s MJ Marfori.

De Vera said his client had accepted the decision. ”In fact, Willie Revillame had voluntarily posted bail way back three years ago. There is no outstanding warrant for his arrest. And the Pretrial has been completed. Willie’s team of lawyers is ready for a full-blown trial. We are confident Justice will prevail,” he added.

The case against Revillame for violation of Republic Act 7610 or the anti-child abuse law was filed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in 2011 in response to the public outcry following a viral video of a “macho dancing” performance by a 6-year-old boy as instigated by Revillame in his TV5 game show “Willing Willie.”

“It can be recalled that Mr. Revillame made a six-year-old boy perform gyrating dance movements on national television in an earlier version of his show,” said DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman last year in welcoming an earlier decision by the Court of Appeals affirming the lower court’s issuance of a warrant of arrest against Revillame for which he subsequently posted bail.

Image courtesy of www.interaksyon.com

The controversy resulted in the withdrawal of several advertisers from “Willing Willie”, which was subsequently issued a one-month suspension by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

After the suspension, Revillame returned with a revamped program called “Will Time Bigtime”, which ran until January 2013. It was immediately replaced by “Wowowillie”, which ran for almost nine months until TV5 cancelled it due to poor ratings.

After a hiatus of almost two years, Revillame moved to GMA Network where he has been hosting a game show called “Wowowin”.