ILOILO CITY – A US-based Filipino journalist has filed a damage suit against Freddie Roach, trainer of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, for allegedly pushing and threatening to kill him over an article he wrote last year.

Alex Vidal, also a licensed international boxing referee and judge, filed the complaint before the Superior Court of California on January 20.

Vidal said that on July 25 or 26 last year, while he was at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas talking with a boxer, a trainer and Dr. Allan Recto, Pacquiao's ring physician, Roach approached him and complained about an article that he wrote on philboxing.com where the journalist is a regular contributor.

In his article posted on July 23, 2008, Vidal wrote that Roach missed the final workout of North American Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Bernabe Concepcion at the trainer's Wild Card gym in Hollywood because he was downed by flu.

Vidal quoted promoter and manager Aljoe Jaro for the information in his story on why Roach failed to attend Concepcion's workout.

Roach had refuted the report and said that he just went to a clinic but was not sick.

“In a hostile and intimidating manner Fred yelled at me that his mother got worried when she learned he was 'sick' and called him up. He stated to me that he was not sick and that he only went to a clinic,” Vidal said in his declaration filed before the court.

Vidal claimed he apologized to Roach and told him he did not intend to twist anything and explained that he merely quoted Jaro.

“I apologized some more, but Fred suddenly pushed me hard in the left shoulder and hollered, ‘The next time you write about it I will kill you,’” Vidal said in his declaration.

Rey Golingan, Pacquiao's close friend and adviser, said it's the first time he has heard about the incident and the complaint.

“I don't have any idea about that. I also don't know if Manny is aware of that,” Golingan said in a telephone interview.

Vidal said he was shocked and embarrassed by the incident and continued to apologized to Roach.

He said he was also afraid because of the threat and did not return to the trainer's gym where Pacquiao also trains.

Vidal, associate editor of Philippine News Service is former editor-in-chief of Iloilo-based community papers the Daily Informer and Sunstar-Iloilo and past president of the Iloilo Press Club.

He is currently the Philippine supervisor of the World Boxing Foundation based in Sydney.

When asked why he only filed the complaint six months after the incident, Vidal said that at the time of the incident he thought he was powerless, being a nobody in the United States and had no connections whatever.

“I kept the pain and endured the emotional distress for several months and told only three people ... in the Philippines when I went home in August 2008,” Vidal said in an e-mail.

He said he we was afraid and greatly affected when he returned to the US on November 28 last year.

Vidal said he decided to come forward and file the complaint after  Gregorio “Greg” Asuncion,  a Filipino-American friend of Pacquiao filed a civil case against Roach for allegedly mauling him on October 20, 2008 at Roach's Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

Asuncion's allegation was denied by Roach.

“How stupid I am to wait until somebody like Greg Asuncion was victimized for me to open my eyes and muster enough courage to come forward and do the appropriate thing to do: file a case for damages, which I should have done a long time a go had it not been for my fear that nobody would believe me as I am a nobody in the United States and was up against a wall,” Vidal said in his e-mail.*NPB

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