Francisco Ortigas III: ‘I can’t stoop to level of my detractors’

Former Ambassador to Mexico Francisco M. Ortigas III has decided to break his silence “for this one time only” regarding the issues in his troubled 43-year marriage to Susana Bayot-Ortigas that have come out in the media.

Sensational details concerning Ortigas’ alleged infidelity, taken from an affidavit submitted in a court filing by his estranged wife, were published in the Inquirer over a week ago forcing him to publicly respond, Ortigas said in a statement sent to the Inquirer the other day.

Ortigas reiterated his position not to dignify the news reports about his marriage as he considered it “a private matter” between him and his estranged spouse.

“This is a purely private matter which refined and civilized individuals normally opt to avoid elucidating on. But it has become evident that money can change the nature of even those who belong to the highest levels of the proverbially well-heeled economic classes,” Ortigas said.

But he felt it was now necessary to air his side, Ortigas said.

All out to malign

“I too can stoop to the same level of my detractors who have gone all-out to malign my person and reputation,” he said.

In his statement, Ortigas said he and other members of the Ortigas clan were “deeply saddened by my detractors’ malicious motives in using media to malign me.”

“It’s bad enough that we are a family no longer, but to turn the matter into a public spectacle is barbaric, to say the least. I can only appeal to the media, and those behind the publication of my wife’s affidavit to allow the legal process to take its course,” he said.

The first sign of the Ortigas couple’s marital troubles surfaced in late 2011 when online social network sites began buzzing with chatter about Susana Bayot-Ortigas leaving the conjugal home, supposedly for good.

Concubinage case

The Inquirer story that was published in the newspaper’s Jan. 8 issue was a report based on a concubinage complaint that Susana Ortigas filed with the Pasig prosecutor’s office last December, in which she went into graphic detail about her husband’s alleged philandering, stinginess and perverse behavior over the course of their four-decade-long marriage.

Ortigas said he preferred not to comment on the rumor that members of his estranged wife’s Madrigal-Bayot clan have been allegedly helping to orchestrate the PR campaign designed to demolish his reputation.

“I am sure there are more than just a few waiting for me to respond with my own collection of dirt about my estranged wife. But through this statement I am putting on record my firm resolve not to do so, let alone dignify the scandalous and malicious accusations hurled at and published about me. These vicious attempts to publicly malign my person and reputation are evident manifestations that my detractors are simply devoid of the basic standard of ethics or morals found in cultured, educated individuals of a civilized society,” he said.

But he said his decision to refuse to dignify the scandalous accusations against him with his own detailed response would not inhibit him from clearing his name.

First posted 12:07 am | Sunday, January 22nd, 2012