MANILA, Philippines--Doctor-turned-show business personality Hayden Kho is now facing criminal charges in the Pasig Regional Trial Court in connection with a sex video scandal involving him, actress Katrina Halili and other women whom he secretly filmed during their trysts.
Government prosecutors charged Kho Thursday with violation of Republic Act 9262, or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004, for secretly videotaping his tryst with Halili and later causing her ?mental distress and anguish? when the video came out in public.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, dropped Halili?s complaint against cosmetic doctor to the stars Victoria ?Vicki? Belo-Henares, Kho?s lover, and Kho?s colleagues Erick Johnston Chua, Dr. Mark Herbert ?Bistek? Rosario and Princess Marie Velasco.
The DOJ panel of prosecutors said Halili failed to show enough evidence that Belo and the three others were ?accessories? for concealing the video and failing to report the crime.
The panel was composed of Senior State Prosecutor Emilie Fe de los Santos as chair, Senior State Prosecutor Rosanne Elepaño-Balauag and State Prosecutor Ma. Lourdes Uy.
The sex videos of Kho and Halili were circulated in the Internet and later in black market video stores and even led to a Senate investigation.
The videos also confirmed showbiz rumors that Kho and Halili were secretly seeing each other even while Kho and Belo were publicly known to be lovers.
In his defense, Kho admitted having recorded some of his trysts with Halili, although he said he had no intention of showing it in public. He added that Hailili knew they were being recorded in three of four videos taken of the trysts.
Halili had told the DOJ panel that the fourth video that made its way to the Internet was taken without her consent and that this was tantamount to crime because she went through ?psychological suffering.?
Kho also claimed he did not court Halili and that it was the actress who seduced him while they were under the influence of drugs. He added that he could not be charged with violation of RA 9262 because there was no use of force and the mere act of video recording is not a crime. Kho also said he had no participation in the dissemination of the video.
The doctor told the panel that he was also a ?victim of circumstance? since a person whom he identified as Carl Arenas tried to blackmail him to keep the video from the public.
But the DOJ said whether Kho was responsible for disseminating the video was ?not the focal point in issue in this case, but rather his act of stealthily videotaping his sexual encounter with Halili.?
It said the act of secret videotaping squarely falls within the purview of RA 9262 Section 5 (h) for causing ?emotional and psychological distress? and (i) for causing ?mental or emotional anguish, public ridicule or humiliation.?
?Even assuming for the sake of argument that there was no emotional attachment involved in their sexual encounters and likewise further granting that both of them were under the influence of drugs when they had consensual sex, still these do not make Kho completely blameless because he knowingly and purposely did the videotaping of what was supposedly a very private matter between lovers,? the panel said.
?(Kho?s) supposition and conclusion that he never intended anyone to see the video is untenably strained and far from truth,? it added.
The DOJ further said that Kho?s act of videotaping his intimate moments with Halili without her knowledge ?clearly shows and manifests his lack of respect for women.?
Belo, Chua and Rosario have denied uploading the video. Belo said that after seeing several videos of Kho with other women from the computer she asked Chua and Rosario to retrieve from Kho?s condominium, she she threw away the DVD and the hard drive in anger.
The DOJ said that although there was no evidence to charge Belo, Chua, Rosario and Velasco as accessories, it asked the National Bureau of Investigation to continue their inquiry against the four and Kho for allegedly uploading the video in the Internet.
