Angelica Panganiban’s lawyer demands Claudine Barretto to stop threatening her client’s life and making “false accusations and damaging remarks” against her.
 
Atty. Joji Alonso said so in a “final demand” letter she sent to Claudine on Sept. 3, PEP reports.
 
With this, the lawyer confirmed earlier reports that Claudine has been sending “grave threats” to Angelica. Alonso noted in her letter:
 
"We have further gathered that on 8 August 2010, you called Ms. Panganiban and threatened her in this manner, ‘[P]apatayin kita. Wawasakin ko mukha mo. You don't deserve to live. Suntukan tayo ngayon na.’ You likewise conveyed this threat against the life of Ms. Panganiban to no less than Ms. Mariole Alberto, Head of Star Magic, when you said ‘Wawasakin ko ang mukha niya pag nagkita kami Tita.’”
 
Alonso said that Claudine’s “threat against the life of our client, which was not made in jest, is a grave threat punishable under our penal laws.”
 
As reported by Bulletin Entertainment on Sept. 3, Star Magic has hired two bodyguards for Angelica as she has also been receiving threats through text messages from anonymous senders.
 
Claudine’s alleged grave threats are said to be in connection with her accusations that Angelica has maligned her by spreading rumors that she has an extra-marital affair with the best friend of Derek Ramsay (Angelica’s boyfriend). She also claimed that Angelica wants to destroy Derek and his buddy Martin Castro’s friendship by allegedly telling people that the latter is a drug addict.
 
Prior to these, Claudine also posted several nasty tweets about a “traitor friend” whom she later on revealed to be Angelica.
 
Because of what Alonso called as Claudine’s “unfounded accusations,” “You (Claudine) have placed our client's reputation and good name in a bad light, in the eyes of the public. Your malicious statements have unduly exposed our client to public hatred and contempt and have caused derogatory feelings against her.”
 
Angelica’s lawyer also demanded Claudine to retract her “libelous and slanderous statements, to correct the negative impression created in the minds of the people who have read or heard your statements against our client.”
 
“Should you fail to do so within seven (7) days from receipt of this letter, we shall be constrained to take whatever legal action necessary to protect the interests of our client,” Alonso warned.
 
In the middle of this latest showbiz ruckus, Angelica has kept her silence.
 
Martin’s wife comes out

In related news, Cristina Castro, wife of Martin, related her sentiments to PEP in connection to Claudine’s pronouncements.
 
First, she corrected Claudine’s claim about Angelica declaring during a party at the Castro home that her sister Gretchen has been showering Derek with expensive gifts. “We would've heard!” she exclaimed. Angelica hardly spoke that night, but had a “smile on her face,” Cris added.
 
Second, Cris said she knows without a doubt that her husband is not having an affair with Claudine. She wonders, though, why Claudine won’t let the issue go. "Claudine told me she did not invent this. I told her, 'I don't care, and you shouldn't care. You have Raymart (Santiago, her husband for four years now), you have your kids, your career. Why should you care? You can't find time for any of this!'” she was quoted as saying.
 
Third, Cris does not appreciate them being dragged into the issue. “Claudine shouldn't have mentioned our names. We're private people. Before this, no one connected our names to this!”
 
Fourth, Martin being called an “addict” is “below the belt,” Cris said. Although she is not blaming Claudine, she said she did not expect for things to get out of hand.
 
Fifth, she clarified that Angelica never affected them negatively the way Claudine does, much less try to destroy the tried and tested friendship of her husband and Derek.

"Angelica, we've known longer than Claudine (although they are not really close, Cris says). There's been no rift all this time, she's never affected us in this way. But Claudine, in just a couple of months...”