“Dr. Belo cries foul over what she claims is a “trial by publicity” being waged against her by one of Norcio’s lawyers, a known activist who also happens to be a columnist in a business newspaper.”
by Ducky Paredes
It would be utterly insensitive for anybody to blame businesswoman Josefina Norcio for the misfortune that befell her, and to attribute her misery to personal vanity. That would be a cruel trivialization of her unhappy situation.
Ms. Norcio is the lady who contracted for a butt augmentation at the Belo Medical Clinic, a procedure that was done originally by Dr. Ronaldo Cayetano sometime in 2002, using hydrogel implants.
Some three years later, in 2005, she asked for corrective treatment because, she complained, her butt had become uneven.
As it turned out, she had to undergo what was only classified as a “retouch” job on her buttocks, which was done by another cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Francis Dechangchon, also of the Belo Medical Clinic.
This year, or some four years after the “retouch” procedure, she apparently discovered that the (pun unintended) end result did not turn out as she had expected. She had to be confined at the St. Luke’s Hospital for an infection that caused her buttocks to swell to a size that, she says. endangered her life. She filed a complaint against the Belo Medical Clinic and its medical director, Dr. Victoria Belo.
The case is under investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and it is expected that the NBI will soon finish its probe. As may be expected in cases involving high profile personalities like Dr. Belo, the complaint drew the usual sensational reports in the press.
That is par for the course, as far as media people are concerned, especially for those in the movie and entertainment press where Belo is a constant subject, being the “doctor of the stars.”
But, there is the problem of Ms. Norcio’s lawyer. Dr. Belo cries foul over what she claims is a “trial by publicity” being waged against her by one of Norcio’s lawyers, a known activist who also happens to be a columnist in a business newspaper. It appears that the lawyer posted unfair allegations against Belo in his Facebook account on the Internet, where he called for a boycott of the Belo Medical Clinic and labeled Vicky as “Reyna ng Kaplastikan” and “Reyna ng Kapalpakan” οr Queen of False Pretenses and Queen of Incompetence.
He also accused Dr. Belo of bribing people to cover up complaints against the clinic and its doctors. In a subsequent Facebook status update, the lawyer also said Belo is “a wannabe mortician masquerading as a cosmetic surgeon” who, he said, “will never be able to stitch up the difference between formalin or botox.”
Quite naturally, such searing indictments led the infuriated doktora and the Belo Medical Clinic to lodge a libel complaint against the lawyer for his “deliberate and malicious intent to destroy the reputation of BMGI and Belo’s practice.” Belo condemns such acts by the lawyer-columnist as unfair and “below the belt.”
Now, whether the posting of such statements in the Internet constitutes libel is something for the prosecutors and the courts to determine. This is an interesting case for all internet-users. Does posting anything on Facebook constitute publication, a necessary ingredient in a libel case?
One might also wonder about the impropriety of such acts, and whether Ms. Norcio’s lawyer is in violation of the ethics of the legal profession. When a lawyer makes very serious accusations and ventilates his diatribes against an adversary not before a court of law, as one would expect, but in a public communications medium, does this constitute improper conduct? I would think so.
The lawyer was also observed to have led, or at least lent his presence to, at least two anti-Belo demonstrations held by some 15 persons at the Quezon City branch of the Belo Medical Clinic. If true, that would really be putting his activism of past years into his legal practice.
Belo and her lawyers ought to inquire from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines on possible sanctions against the lawyer.
A recent entry in the lawyer’s Facebook update is directed to an associate: “Are you in the States, too? Trixie is there and will be issuing press releases.” And yet another: “Natapos ko na ‘yong pleadings ko – administrative case, separate criminal case and with my partner’s inputs from the US, a lot of attachable properties in the States. (May nice condo pala si Vicki sa SFO, among others).”
Imagine that! The lawyer casts covetous eyes on the assets and properties of Belo in the US and publicly reveals himself!
The courts will, of course, be the final arbiter on the merits of the complaint filed by Ms. Norcio.
The published statements of Dr. Francis Decangchon who did the retouch on Norcio, notes that in doing the minor retouch “since three years from the surgery done in 2002, there were no complications, no rejection, no complaint of infection, the logical thing to do is use the same material.”
He said that when he removed the stitches, “there was no problem, no allergy, no infection.” That meant that any infection or side effects that would happen four years later could not be traced to the minor retouch,
Decangchon was reported to have said that neither the hydrogel implant nor the procedure “is the immediate cause of infection. The time was too long before it happened.” He stated that the proximate cause of the infection may have been from an “external” cause” such as a boil, a pimple or a wound wherein the infection reached the implant.
The doctor also speculated that Norcio could have suffered from constipation that injured her buttocks, or a vaginal infection that spread to the implant.
It may also be significant that according to Decangchon, he and Norcio saw each other again a few times “because they played badminton on the same court.” He said they saw each other again in the supermarket and other places in the years that followed. “She could have told me if there was a problem by then,” the doctor further states in his affidavit.
It may also be asked whether it is possible that if Norco is into badminton, that such a strenuous physical activity could have caused a tear in the stitches on her butt and subsequently become an entry point for an infection? Honestly, no one knows for sure.
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hvp 09.24.09
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