Filing a case against Manny Pacquiao is Solar Sports? last resort.
?We just want the best for Manny Pacquiao,? said Solar Sports Chief Operating Officer Peter Chan Liong, a few hours before he flew to Los Angeles to meet up with Pacquiao to iron out the kinks of the controversial broadcast deal that he signed with ABS-CBN.
Chan Liong said he has spoken with Top Rank head Bob Arum, who assured him that everything has been resolved and that Solar Sports still holds the broadcast rights of Pacquiao?s fights.
Arum said Pacquiao has to honor his contract with Solar Sports, which the Hall of Fame promoter said ?had been good to him (Pacquiao).?
Earlier in the day, Solar Sports held a press conference at Eastwood City in Quezon City with a battery of lawyers declaring that Pacquiao did not have a legal basis to suddenly rescind his contract with the company.
?Solar is bound to protect those who are under contract with us. We will sue if we need to sue to protect our rights,? said lead counsel Enrique De La Cruz.
However, ?legal action is our last resort,? stressed another lawyer, Stephen David.
Solar Sports will have no other choice but to file a case next week in the event Pacquiao remains steadfast that ABS-CBN has control over the broadcast rights of his May 2 fight with Ricky Hatton.
?Solar strongly believes that it was a case of misappreciation of facts (by Pacquiao). He was probably misguided. There is no valid ground to rescind the contract. There has to be substantial breach,? said another lawyer, Joseph Sagandoy.
Solar Sports insists that it doesn?t owe Pacquiao even a single centavo and that whenever Pacquiao requests for a cash advance, the company makes it a point to deliver.
ABS-CBN, meanwhile, issued a statement after the press conference, saying all the station is after is the right to show Pacquiao?s fights.
?ABS-CBN?s airing of Manny Pacquiao?s fights will not violate his contract with GMA, which prohibits Pacquiao from appearing on ?any television program, show, promotion or event of any other broadcast media entity.
Manny?s fights are not programs, shows, promotion, or events of ABS-CBN. As the media partner of Manny Pacquiao, the Kapamilya network will only be airing Pacquiao?s boxing matches that will produced by Top Rank.
