Two of Kris Aquino’s cases of qualified theft against her former manager Nicko Falcis got dismissed in Makati City and Pasig City due to insufficient evidence.
Falcis and Gretchen Barretto, who suddenly got involved and sided with him, celebrated this development based on their social media posts.
Resolutions
In November 2018, Aquino filed 44 counts of qualified theft against Falcis in seven cities for allegedly exploiting P1.2 million through a company-issued credit card. The other five pending charges are in Quezon City, Taguig, Manila, Mandaluyong and San Juan.
The card was only to be used for the expenses of her production outfit Kris Cojuanco Aquino Productions or KCAP.
In Makati, the resolution dated February 18, 2019 stated that “there is no sufficient evidence to engender a well-founded belief that Falcis committed the crimes charged.”
Moreover, the resolution noted that given that BDO is the main issuer of the card, it is also the sole owner, thus Falcis is liable to the bank and not to Aquino.
“As cardholder, Falcis is personally liable to BDO for any and all amounts charged to the card… thus, should Falcis not pay his credit card bill, BDO can directly initiate legal actions against him to compel him to pay,” it added.
In Pasig, the prosecutor’s office stated that the credit card in question was “neither stolen, lost, expired, revoked, cancelled, suspended or obtained with intent to defraud” in the resolution dated February 15, 2019.
“The credit card was voluntarily issued to respondent under his name. Thus, when the respondent used the credit card for purchases at Lucendi and Toby’s Estate in Pasig City, the credit card cannot be considered as unauthorized within the tenets cited by law,” Senior Assistant Prosecutor Aileen Sabarre said.
Falcis expressed how thankful he was with the dismissal of the cases on Facebook.
DISMISSED. I would like to emphasize that the allegations against me by Kris Aquino are so erroneous and without basis. …
Posted by Nicko Falcis on Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Is Gretchen Barretto involved?
Meanwhile, Barretto posted photos and video clips of her mini “thanksgiving” celebration for it.
It started with an Instagram post that read: “No to bullies! Stop power tripping” last January. She then shared screenshots of a copy of an audio recording of a phone call between Aquino and Falcis.
Aquino supposedly made death threats against Falcis in the audio clip, copies of which made rounds online. It soon prompted Falcis and his younger brother, Jesus, to file two counts of grave threats against Aquino.—Artwork by Uela Altar-Badayos
