By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Metro Inn owner Catherine Brios and her legal adviser, Atty. Joemax Ortiz, may file charges against the former’s estranged husband, businessman Francis Cabuga, after his attempted takeover of the lodging establishment last Monday.
In a press conference yesterday, Brios said, she was forced to destroy the hotel’s glass doors and use a bolt cutter to open the establishment.
She explained, the initial understanding between the couple gave her management over the hotel and a resort in Barangay Punta Taytay, while the husband was in charge of a 100-hectare sugarcane field.
In a separate press conference, Cabuga and his lawyer, Atty. Erfe del Castillo, claimed they were held “hostage” and were intending to conduct an audit of the hotel.
They added, the individuals bringing them food were allegedly denied entrance to the hotel.
In response, Brios said, if her husband wanted to conduct an audit, all he had to do was ask.
Ortiz echoed his client’s words, saying she is open for audit, but said taking over and padlocking the hotel was unnecessary. He also pointed, out, accounting for all properties are currently pending in court and his client’s estranged husband had no court order to justify his actions.
“Wherever you look at it, it was illegal,” he surmised.
Brios also denied Cabuga and his group were denied food, claiming she asked hotel staff to give them food and, when she went to see the said individuals bringing them food, they fled.
Meanwhile, she also plans to file charges against del Castillo before the Women and Children’s Protection Desk, along with a possible disbarment case.
Brios alleged the attorney “shooed away” their daughter, who wanted to speak with her father. She also accused the lawyer of tearing up a letter the daughter wrote for her father.
Ortiz also chided del Castillo, saying, as a lawyer, she should have advised her client to have the court handle matters instead of doing things “illegally.”
Brios also apologized to the public for the resulting traffic disruptions that occurred during the incident./DGB, WDJ
