‘MY BROTHER IS INNOCENT ON LUISITO ESPINOSA CASE’
By Alex P. Vidal
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 25 Nov 2009
RICHMOND, British Columbia – The elder sister of former South Cotabato governor Hilario “Larry” De Pedro has come out in the open here to defend her brother against accusations that he was among those who should be held liable why former World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight champion Luisito Espinosa failed to collect the balance of $130,349 the former boxer earned when he defended his crown in December 2007 in Koronadal City.
“I believe that Larry is innocent because he did not have any financial interest in that fight,” insisted Haydee De Pedro-Alonzo, who now resides here together with her lawyer husband.
De Pedro-Alonzo showed some old newspaper clippings she had gathered where her brother, then ally of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos, was included in a suit together with two known boxing promoters, the late Rod Nazario and Lito Mondejar.
The case was filed by Espinosa, 42, who now lives in California, USA.
“I patiently kept these newspaper clippings because I became interested in the case when it was reported in the internet and I have been following its developments,” she said. “Larry was even surprised that I have all these papers until today.”
De Pedro-Alonzo, who is vice president of Circulo Ilonggo Association in British Columbia, said she had confronted the former governor about the case when she first heard about it more than 10 years ago and De Pedro told her that he wanted to face his accusers in court “because the truth will come out there,” she quoted him as saying.
De Pedro, a criminal lawyer and one of the brains behind the Local Government Code of the Philippines, was included in the suit for estafa filed by Espinosa in his capacity as “guarantor” of the international promotion where Espinosa kept his crown after knocking out in the 6th round Carlos Rios of Argentina.
The promotion was staged under the chairmanship of Dominador Cepeda, Jr. of the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) which reportedly endorsed the Letter of Guarantee supposedly signed by De Pedro through a “representative”, Jose Pring, Jr.
The Philippine Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) reportedly gave P5 million for the promotion’s initial expenses but the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) failed to release its share of another P5 million.
She said private sponsors also backed out when they learned that the fight would not be televised “live” due to lack of lighting facilities in the airport runway and no aircraft was willing to pick up the tape to be flown to Manila on time.
“The role of my brother was ministerial as he was the governor of the province of South Cotabato which hosted the bout,” explained De Pedro-Alonzo.
She said “I would have declared war against my own brother” if she was convinced that he tainted “the good name our father had inherited to us” but she learned later she said that her brother was “only a victim of false accusation.”
De Pedro-Alonzo added that her brother had threatened to file a countersuit against Espinosa and his Japanese manager Joe Koizumi but Espinosa had flown to the United States and is now a green card holder and had already parted ways with Koizumi.
She was convinced, she said, that her brother was innocent “because even his political rivals in Mindanao did not use that issue against him because they knew that it was not true.”
“I told him that Larry, the truth will eventually come out and you should be thankful that there are still people who are willing to help it come out until today,” she said.
De Pedro is reportedly interested to run for congressman next year and is not worried about the “dead” issue “because nobody in Mindanao believes that my brother is a criminal. We came from a good family and we owe it to our parents to take care of the good name that they left us,” she concluded.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Alex P. Vidal.
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