Ex-Wowowee members want to intervene in case

MANILA, Philippines - Former staff members of the defunct show Wowowee, who had joined Willie Revillame in his transfer to TV5, yesterday asked a Quezon City court to allow them to intervene in the host’s legal battle with ABS-CBN.

The 62 staff members led by former business head Jay Montelibano filed the seven-page motion for leave of court to intervene, through their lawyer Santos Catubay, Jr., before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84.

Revillame is seeking a judicial confirmation of his decision to terminate his contract with his former mother network and to be awarded P11 million in damages. ABS-CBN, in response, filed a P486-million counterclaim suit against the host. The network is also seeking a temporary restraining order against Revillame’s new show on TV5.

The former staff members claimed that when ABS-CBN cancelled Wowowee, most of them resigned “out of disgust” with the network’s treatment of Revillame, while others were terminated from employment. “As such, movants-intervenors have legal interest in the judicial confirmation of the rescission of the agreement between ABS-CBN and Revillame. They stand to lose or gain by direct legal operation and effect of the judgment on the same case,” they said.

They said that if the court granted Revillame’s petition, they could continue their work in his new show. They said that with a decision against the host they would lose their jobs.

“Their families and relatives, who are dependent on them, would also suffer financially, economically and even emotionally if injunction be issued and the show “Willing Willie” be prevented from airing,” they said.