Joey bears no grudge against Kris, just shocked at accusations

Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez said yesterday he holds no grudge against his former girlfriend, actress and TV host Kris Aquino.

Aquino has accused him of beating her, cocking a gun at her and giving her a sexually transmitted disease.

"I’m not angry at her. I’m just surprised and shocked by her accusations," Marquez told The STAR in a phone interview.

He said he is ready to answer all of his former lover’s accusations in court.

Aquino’s lawyers will reportedly file charges against Marquez, who is on his third term as mayor, after he allegedly poked a gun at her during an argument last week at his sister’s condominium in Taguig. He has denied Aquino’s allegations.

"The public apology she wants me to make only boils down to three words: ‘I am guilty.’ I am not guilty of the things she accused me of doing," said Marquez, who earlier turned down an offer made by Aquino not to sue him if he apologizes to her in public.

In an interview on GMA-7’s "S-Files," Marquez admitted that he used the cellular phone of Parañaque City councilor Anjo Yllana, to talk to Aquino last Thursday.

Marquez said he was surprised when news of their conversation came out in the media the following day.

Marquez said he apologized to her, but reiterated that he merely said sorry for not understanding how Aquino valued her career and that he does not want to do anything to jeopardize it.

"They wanted me to say, ‘I am sorry, Kris, I did you wrong’ then later changed it to ‘I’m sorry, Kris, you are not a liar,’" Marquez said.

He said the first version was acceptable since he would not be admitting to any crime, but the revised apology did not sit well with him.

Marquez asked forgiveness from people who were affected by the controversy, particularly his former girlfriend’s mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

Aquino, for her part, said this latest episode in her life has left her damaged, destroyed, and without dignity.

"I’m damaged. I’m destroyed. Alam ko makasalanan ako pero bakit ako handang harapin ang lahat. Bakit siya?" an emotional Aquino told her co-host Boy Abunda on ABS-CBN’s The BUZZ.

Aquino and Marquez again figured in a verbal tussle via their respective television shows, with her answering the statements he made on Channel 7’s S-Files.

In answer to Marquez’s statement that she had robbed him of his dignity, a defiant Aquino said it was she who lost her dignity when she decided to reveal the most private details of their tumultuous relationship that began last year. — With Mayen Jaymalin