Interaksyon.com reports that former Philippine ambassador to Mexico Francisco "Paqui" Ortigas III, 65, has "tacitly admitted" to the accusation of his estranged wife Susana Madrigal-Bayot, 63, that he had "taken liberties with the female household staff."

In the counteraffidavit submitted to the Pasig Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday (January 30), Ortigas said, "I may have ventured into boyish adventurism. However, all of them (had been) forgiven and condoned by the complainant."

Last month, it was revealed that the couple—who had been married on January 4, 1968—were splitting up because of Ortigas' alleged indiscretions. Aside from getting intimate with their maids, Bayot said her husband also had an affair with her Assumption College classmate, Ma. Antonia Legarda, 64. Bayot said that she had considered Legarda as her best friend.

However, Bayot claimed that Ortigas and Legarda had gotten intimate when the latter served as the former's executive assistant in Mexico.

Despite his admission (if one can call it that) about getting involved with their maids, Ortigas maintained (in a way) that he had not been intimate with Legarda. He pointed out: "(The Pasig Prosecutor's Office) does not have the power or authority to even determine the existence of probable cause as the alleged criminal act, assuming it to be true, took place outside of the jurisdiction of the Philippines and is an act done not in the exercise and/or performance of my function as an Ambassador." Ortigas' statement is, in effect, saying that whether or not something happened between him and Legarda is immaterial since they had been in Mexico anyway. One of the witnesses quoted by Bayot had reportedly seen Ortigas and Legarda in flagrante delicto.

Ortigas' counteraffidavit also addressed (among other things) Bayot's claim that he had called her tanga (stupid) or bobo (dumb). The report pointed out: "Saying he was raised to converse in Spanish and English, Ortigas claimed he could not have possibly regularly ridiculed his wife, as she has alleged, as tanga (stupid) or bobo (dolt)."

The report noted that Legarda had also submitted a counteraffidavit. In it, she said that Bayot's accusations were products of her "fertile imagination" and "unfounded jealousy."

The Ortigas vs. Bayot case is still under preliminary investigation.

For more on this story, log on to Interaksyon.com.