Lawyer Jiecel Tiu (center) with her younger sister lawyer Alisha Tiu and family lawyer Rex Fernandez in a March 2 press conference where they recounted how Jiecel was chased and hit with a baseball bat by Pearl Ungab. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Reaching a settlement is a thorny process as the family of injured lawyer Jiecel Tiu insisted that any offer should be made in writing.
And lawyers should be present.
Alisha Tiu, her sister, yesterday said any agreement to withdraw the pending criminal case arising from the Feb. 26 baseball bat assault on Jiecel by a jealous wife should be handled by the family’s lawyer.
“But it should be done with conditions. It should be made in writing and coursed through our lawyer,” she told Cebu Daily News.
Alisha, who is also a lawyer, insisted that a private meeting did take place last Thursday at their residence in Minglanilla town where Vice Mayor Jonah John Ungab allegedly went in a black Mitsubishi Strada to talk with Jiecel.
“He (Ungab) was there past 10 p.m. It’s not only me who could prove that. Security guards of the subdivision where we reside could affirm what I’m saying,” she said.
Alisha said her sister and Ungab spoke in the living room.
Alisha said she wasn’t privy to their conversation but believes the purpose was to offer a settlement in the pending case for slight physical injuries filed against Ungab’s wife Pearl, who smashed Tiu’s car and hit her with a bat in a jealous rage.
“Why else would he go to our house? Besides, that was not the first time he attempted to settle the case with my sister,” Alisha said.
Ungab’s lawyer Leilani Villarino the other night vehemently denied that her client had a meeting on Thursday with Jiecel, his former law firm associate, or that he offered P500,000 and a public apology to amicably settle the case, terms which were revealed by Tiu’s lawyer Rex Fernandez.
Settlement
“There was no such offer,” said Villarino. “I am also appealing to Atty. Jiecel Tiu as one lawyer to another and friend, that she should not allow anybody to twist the facts for her. She herself knows that I know what really happened.”
Villarino said she would no longer issue public statements, even as she emphasized that a conflict is best resolved in an amicable settlement.
Asked to comment on the denial yesterday, Fernandez said, “Bahala sila. Kon di sila mangayog pasaylo, padayon ang kaso. (Let them do what they want. If they won’t apologize, the case will continue).”
That denial also prompted Tiu’s sister Alisha to stand by the account that a meeting did take place on Thursday with Ungab approaching Jiecel at home.
She said the vice mayor, Jiecel’s former colleague in the Ungab, Gealon and Associates law firm, introduced himself to the guards as Jiecel’s lawyer when he was about to enter the subdivision on board a black SUV.
Conversation
“We earlier instructed the guards not to allow Atty. Ungab’s vehicles to enter the subdivision. But the Mitsubishi Strada he used last Thursday wasn’t on the list of vehicles we submitted to the guards,” Alisha said.
She said that last Friday evening, Vice Mayor Ungab sent threats to her sister through text messages.
“According to Atty. Ungab, he secretly recorded his conversation with my sister last Thursday. But we’re not afraid. He knows very well the implications of what he was doing. So stop threatening my sister,” she said.
The ongoing case has shocked the legal community with its telenovela-like allegations of an extra-marital affair between lawyers, and a wife’s outrage vented in a physical attack in a public place after a car chase.
The criminal charge was filed in court last week, but a full-blown trial can still be headed off if parties agree to settle their differences.
Car chase
Alisha said the Tiu family is still open to a settlement with the Ungabs.
She said the terms remain a public apology and “restitution for damages incurred.”
Alisha said four persons have to apologize: Vice Mayor Ungab, his wife Pearl, his brother Jonald, and mother Dr. Alma Ungab.
The violent confrontation took place last Feb. 27 in the parking lot of Centro Maximo Building in Cebu City where Tiu holds office and continued in a car chase to Echavez Extension outside the Citom office.
Tiu’s Toyota Vios sedan was bashed with a baseball bat and then rammed from behind after she speeded out of the parking lot.
No intent
An angry Mrs. Ungab, 41, driving a four-wheel drive pickup, then got down and smashed the car windows, tried to pull out the lady lawyer and hit her with a baseball bat.
Tiu sustained bruises on the body.
The Cebu City Prosecutor downgraded the complaint of frustrated murder to slight physical injuries, saying Mrs. Ungab did not show any intent to kill the lawyer, otherwise she would have used a gun.
The case will be raffled off to a judge of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities on Monday.
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