Now showing: A twinning war of the ‘wealthy’

The “battle” between actor-TV host Vic Sotto and film director Darryl Yap on the way to the court looked and felt like a “war of the wealthy.”

That’s how some journos felt about the “battle” when they covered the first hearing of the court cases they filed against each other at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court on Friday morning of 17 January.

The  “war of the wealthy” momentarily manifested at the facade of the building where the trial court is housed. Sotto and Yap separately arrived riding a Lexus LM 350h car. Sotto’s was black and he arrived ahead of Yap. Sotto was with his wife, actor Paula Luna. 

Yap’s Lexus was gray. He seems to have arrived alone, although he had a bodyguard.

While still in the court premises, one reporter decided to log on to the Lexus website to check out the price of those cars. He found out that a four-seater Lexus LM 350h is P7.1 million while a seven-seater is P10.7 million.

The two “warring” personalities having similar cars might be taken as an unwitting act of “twinning.” Since the journos are aware that Sotto and Yap have asked the court to issue a gag order against each other, the journos decided they will ask Yap later after the hearning what he thinks about the unplanned “twinning” of his car with that of Sotto since they were anxious that he would say anything at all about what happened in court.

When the journos approached Yap after the court hearing, true enough, as they had suspected — he would not willing talk about anything that transpired in the courtroom. He was in a hurry to go.

When the journos asked him about the status of his controversial film, all he said was he was still working on it. He did not elaborate if he meant he was still shooting scenes for the film or if he’s already attending to the film’s post-production. 

Later, the print media reporters and a columnist recalled in their articles that in a previous interview, Yap told them that the movie was already completed. They thought Yap at that time was already preparing to submit the film to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). Yap, after all,  already had a teaser by late December, the one that became controversial because of the mention of Sotto’s name in connection with nymphet actor Pepsi Paloma. 

Yap reiterated that he wanted to show the film in cinemas by February. He was confident that even with that scene that mentions Sotto as Paloma’s rapist, the film will be approved. And despite the fact that the MTRCB is chaired by Lala Sotto, a niece of Vic Sotto — daughter of Tito Sotto a former senator and brother of Vic (The buzz now is Yap himself is the producer of the film, so he’ll do anything and everything to get back his money and make a decent profit, too). 

They did not get to ask Yap anymore about the “twinning” cars because his bodyguard approached Yap and led him to his Lexus outside. The journos are actually not sure if The actor-TV host went out of the court room at 10:30 a.m. Yap got out of it almost by noon.

No one found time to ask when the next hearing will be for both of them. And if there will ever be a hearing that will be open to the media and to the public.

So, here we all are waiting for developments about the court cases and about The Rapists of Pepsi Paloma.

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We’re also being treated to silence about the cases involving actor Sancho Muhlach and the two independent contractors of GMA 7, between actors Rita Daniela and Archie Alemania, between a group of investors and Nery Naig. Nothing, too, about Rufa Mae Quinto and her estafa cases filed possibly by the same people who sued Naig for the same syndicated estafa as both Naig and Quinto are endorsers of the same products for human beauty.

Silence, too about Quinto needing to go back to the US to attend a divorce hearing since her US-based husband has yet to file a case for their divorce. Quinto and her estranged husband married in fhe Philippines. So how can he petition for divorce in the country, which has no divorce law, stressed Quinto.