Vicki Belo fights back

Celebrity cosmetic surgeon Vicky Belo photographed at the wake of teen actor AJ Perez. INQUIRER/Arnold Almacen

MANILA, Philippines—Now it’s celebrity doctor Vicki Belo’s shot at turning the tables on her dissatisfied former patient.

The well-known cosmetic surgeon has filed perjury charges against a woman trader who complained of a botched butt job done on her by the Belo Medical Group, claiming the woman had lied in her affidavit.

In the complaint she filed last Tuesday, Belo claimed that businesswoman Josefina Norcio lied under oath in her second complaint against the BMG.

She said that in filing the second complaint, Norcio should have openly declared that she had filed a similar complaint earlier and had petitioned the Department of Justice to review the dismissal of that complaint and that she had filed as well an administrative complaint with the Professional Regulatory Commission.

The trader had filed a complaint in 2009 against Belo and BMG surgeons Ronaldo Cayetano and Francis Decangchon for estafa and reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries.

Norcio also alleged that the three doctors violated the National Internal Revenue Code and the Consumer Act of the Philippines.

In 2010, the Quezon City prosecutors office dismissed the complaint for lack of evidence, prompting the trader to file a petition for review at the Department of Justice, a case that is still pending.

Last month, Norcio again filed another complaint against Belo et al. based on the same event, but this time for estafa and violation of the 1959 Medical Act.

Belo pointed out, however, in her own complaint, that the two Norcio complaints were similar and that “they all refer to one and the same set of facts and circumstances,” referring to the allegedly failed butt job.

The surgeon said she verified with the Quezon City prosecutors’ office the “investigation data form” accompanying the new complaint Norcio lodged against her.

In that accomplished form, Norcio said no similar complaint had been filed before any other office, and that the current complaint was not related to another case before the Quezon City prosecutors’ office.

The said form and the new complaint affidavit were sworn statements in which Norcio said all facts were true and correct to the best of her knowledge.

Perjury lay in the “fact that respondent knew the falsity of the above statements and therefore [therefore] deliberately made [it],” Belo said in her complaint.