The Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has issued a preliminary injunction to stop the airing of a segment of the public affairs program “Imbestigador” of GMA Channel 7, about a Pasay prosecutor allegedly engaged in extortion.
In a two-page order, Judge Francisco Mendiola said: “The airing of the video segment that tends to make petitioner appear to be liable for the crime which he is charged, now pending investigation at the Department of Justice, will immediately cause him and his office irreparable damage in the form of public distrust, ridicule and humiliation.”
The injunction was issued after a petition was filed by John Giselher Imperial, an assistant city prosecutor of Pasay.
Mendiola said the respondents (Imbestigador producers), their agents and any person acting for and on their behalf, are enjoined from airing the segment involving the video taken on the petitioner on June 2, 2007.
Imbestigador is being represented by its producer Junie Castillo and host Mike Enriquez.
Mendiola likewise directed Imperial to post a bond of P25,000. The bond is reportedly “conditioned to answer for any damage that the respondents may suffer, by reason of the issuance of this Order of Preliminary Injunction should this court finally decide that the said issuance is unwarranted.”
In his petition, Imperial alleged that Last June 14, 2007, his wife Connie Grace informed him that Imbestigador which airs every Saturday night, intends to air a segment where he was a subject of an alleged entrapment operation that happened last June 2, 2007 at the Pasay City Hall parking area.
The teaser of the segment was mockingly titled “Let’s Get Piskal” and implied that petitioner was extorting money from a female victim.
Scenes of the petitioner being accosted by a group of males at the parking lot of the Pasay City Hall while walking were shown, and of a lady was complaining to the Imbestigador team.
Petitioner was arrested by members of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group but no money was found in his possession.
“Petitioner will suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury if the respondents will push through with the airing of the said segment in the program, under and considering the circumstances prevailing in the present investigation. It will not only put him and his reputation in bad light but that of the office he represents for which reason it is most unfair and inequitable to allow the respondents to air the same subject segment for whatever reason,” Imperial said in his five-page petition read.