Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles

A good friend, Atty. Argee Guevarra just told me a sad truth about a friend, Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles. Actually, some of these things were kinda spreading na in the Internet for the longest time, but since, Trixie is a nice friend, I ignored it.

When Argee however, told me of these things now, since Argee and I belong to the same group, it's probably time to alert other people about what Trixie and her gang are doing.

Trixie, when will you stop? 

This is the email sent to me by Atty. Arge Guevarra. Those named here have the right to reply. And I will also publish theirs if they send me a reply.

I knew of Trixie Cruz-Angeles in law school where she is around 3 to 4 batches below me. We chanced upon each other in the Marine Brig in the aftermath of the failed 2006 anti-GMA exercise which culminated in the Marine Standoff. She frequented the Brig to visit her “client”, Capt. Nick Faeldon whom she claimed, years later, to be her “boyfriend”.



Sometime in December 2007, in the immediate aftermath of the Manila Pen Rebellion, she visited the Camp Crame Detention Center, ostensibly, to visit BGen. Danny Lim. In my desperation to salvage my law practice since most of my clients fired me, I offered her to be my partner so that she may be able to service my few remaining clients who have active cases in Court while I am in prison, which I then presumed to last until GMA is in power.



Thinking that I might be in detention for the long haul and surprised by her immediate acceptance of my offer which I felt was a sign of courage and daring, I gave her complete control and access to said clients and to my law office.



After my release from detention, she expressed her readiness and supposed commitment to the anti-GMA struggle and considering that she lawyers for Capt. Faeldon whom I considered a friend in the post-Oakwood period, I invited her to join the Sanlakas bloc of Laban ng Masa to strengthen our alliance work with the military rebels as she focused her “work” with the supposed clandestine activities of Capt. Faeldon and Maj. Jason Aquino.



We decided to put our legal practice on hold for year 2008/2009 and concentrate more on our political tasks – her task, primarily to coordinate the alleged planned activities of Maj. Aquino who was not part of the Magdalo group. I noticed, however, that she concentrated more on looking for some “substantial funding” to allegedly support our political tasks, to presumably aid Capt. Faeldon in his life as a fugtive and to allegedly help certain military operations of Maj. Jason Aquino, among which was a surgical strike against GMA which “needed Php5 million” to undertake. I provided her access to personalities who may be interested but said personalities dismissed this supposed plan as classic swindling activities.



Sometime in May 2009, we accepted Gotesco mall owners’ request for us to render politico-legal services to prevent Caloocan City Mayor Recom Echiverri from gaining control and possession of the disputed mall. On the eve of the well-publicized takeover, she informed me that she will meet with some representatives of Recom. This supposed meeting was arranged by Amiel Cabanlig (a gay, bayaran blogger who always attacks PNoy in www.donavictorina.com and whose claim to social importance is bragging about his being a ka-chongkee and ka-cocaine of Mike Defensor).



I asked her why she needs to meet representatives of Recom and she informed me that Recom’s group wants to “pay us off” so that we abandon our clients. I allowed her to meet with the representatives but only to listen and spy as to their intentions and tactics. I gave her strict orders not to accept or make any deal that would compromise our existing attorney-client relationship with Gotesco Mall owners. A week later, we were able to accomplish our tasks for which we received partial payment for our attorney’s fees.



Weeks after the Gotesco mall incident and considering my unwillingness to follow-up on the full payment of our attorney’s fees from the notoriously stingy and shrewd Gotesco mall owners, I just assigned the task to Trixie. At around that time, she introduced to me her supposed estranged “husband” Atty. “Estanislao” Bong Angeles, a Utopia fraternity brod of Recom who approached me and who came up with a story about some Commission on Audit finding that he said could coerce or compel the Gotesco mall owners into paying us our remaining balance. Since I don’t understand much about audit procedures, I just referred Trixie to my contacts in Gotesco mall and even accompanied her once to a meeting where nothing was actually accomplished because Trixie was herself vague of her husband’s idea or did not understand the importance of this supposed COA finding.



Sometime in July-August 2009, Trixie’s legal services was sought by her kumare, Josefina Norcio after the latter nearly died of infection arising from a prior butt-augmentation surgical procedure by Vicki Belo involving the banned substance hydrogel. Since we were partners then, I agreed to be dragged into a legal campaign against Belo in order for Ms. Norcio to be adequately indemnified. I launched a Facebook campaign against Belo’s medical malpractice which resulted in her filing of libel charges against me. Trixie recommended a certain Reyn Barnido (a PR practitioner, the one whom PNoy officially answered a year later after the former’s “Dear P-Noy: an open letter to the president”).



Because the libel suit backfired on Belo and due to the negative press she has been receiving which coincided with the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili fiasco, Belo was supposed to “settle” with Josefina Norcio, thru Trixie Cruz-Angeles and Reyn Barnido. Only Trixie and Reyn assumed the role of negotiators with their supposed contacts from the Belo camp. I, however, met with Belo negotiators (Alan German and Ted Almeda (?)previously and once only -- and the full extent of the negotiations I relayed to Norcio and her then live-in partner Jun Calle.



At any rate, Belo was supposed to arrive at an amicable settlement with Norcio on the condition that I be fired by Norcio as her lawyer, according to Reyn and Trixie. A fact I felt was a betrayal but nevertheless went along with it for as long as the client gets what she wants and I receive my promised share of attorney’s fees (10 percent) because my “firing” will essentially be “just on paper”. The payment date, however, coincided with Typhoon Ondoy and no settlement materialized. When Ondoy took place (Sept. 27, 2009 (?), I was, however, in China with one of my ex-girlfriends.



A month or so after Ondoy, I regularly went to meet with Trixie in her residence (she has rarely been going to our law office) to follow-up on the developments regarding the settlement with Belo but she told me not to contact Josefina Norcio allegedly because she and her husband don’t want to see me anymore. It was around this time, according to Trixie that Norcio, her live-in partner Jun Calle and Reyn Barnido set up a PR firm called Outshout Comm.



In one of my visits to her residence, she and her husband confided in me that Atty. Estanislao “Bong” Angeles was manhandled and beaten up by Mayor Echeverri at the Utopia tambayan during the bar exams in DLSU. I said that this matter should be disclosed to the media but both Trixie and Bong prevailed on me not to do so because the supposed incident was an “internal fraternity matter.”



I became suspicious about their unwillingness to publicly reveal this politically-damaging piece of information and asked from my grassroots contacts who are close to Mayor Echeverri who later on revealed to me that Atty. Bong Angeles, a fraternity brod of Recom, was beaten up by the mayor because he was allegedly extorting money from the mayor and using my name – obviously without my knowledge and consent – by threatening the Mayor Echeverri with -- “si Argee ang nanghihingi sa iyo brod, hindi ako …. at kung hindi, iiskandaluhin ka nuon” or words to that effect.





In the political-legal front, sometime between July-December, 2009, I noticed that Atty. Trixie – while being preoccupied with the anti-Belo campaign – was also very much into sowing intrigues between the Magdalos and the “group” of Maj. Jason Aquino. This despite the fact that she had been insinuating herself to BGen Lim to be his and the Magdalo group’s spokesperson (This was long before the rift between BGen Lim and the Magdalos widened a few months before the 2010 elections).



Atty. Trixie’s persistent and vicious tirades against Sen. Trillanes and other detained Magdalos compromised my long-standing friendship and camaraderie with the senator who I consider to be a comrade-in-arms and a worthy “fellow traveler”. It was also during this period that I regularly handed Trixie small sums of money amounting to 5k at any given time which she claims she will use to send to her “bf” Nick Faeldon who she claims is starving and having a hard time evading enemy capture. I know for a fact that she receives contributions of similar amount from various sources, sponsors and contributors.



It was also during this period when Trixie decided to have a liposuction treatment (why liposuction – I don’t know – when what she should have had fixed was her teeth and her face). She said that some facial care clinic (YSA, I think) will provide said liposuction because she is being asked to be YSA’s endorser in billboards. On the scheduled date of her treatment, Reyn Barnido called me on one Sunday (?)to request me to bring my checkbook so I may issue a check for professional fees for the doctor who will perform the liposuction.



Since at that time I only had a checkbook with no more than a few thousands in the account, I declined Reyn’s request for help but he prevailed over me after saying that Trixie was already on the operating table, on anesthesia, and that said check payment was needed only as guarantee – anyway, he claimed, the check was just for guarantee because the liposuction sponsor would immediately pay for said operation on first banking hours of the following day.



Sometime between January-February 2010, Trixie and Reyn requested, nay begged me, to make the appropriate recommendation and representations to Ms. Vivian Tan’s camp to act as the PR handlers for the latter’s congressional campaign under Outshout Comm (a company fully funded by Josefina Norcio). I did so on the condition that she contributes to the expenses of the law firm which she had been neglecting and was constantly being delinquent in her contributions to the firm’s overhead expenses. I requested that she help out with the firm’s expenses until May after which I predicted that our law practice to improve with the expiration of term, removal or overthrow of GMA.



From January to May, Trixie went to the law office once or twice a month and preferred staying or working with the PR company. She also prepared herself for her supposed gracing the men’s mag, FHM where she claimed that she was selected to be a model of. As things turned out, Trixie was able to con Josefina Norcio into forking more than Php 100,000.00 which Trixie paid to FHM for the publication to feature her. The “feature spread consisting of 4 pages dedicated to her” turned out to be a mere advertorial.



Sometime in March, Trixie’s driver, Nelson de Gallado approached me and warned me that I am being cheated by Trixie of my share in the Belo settlement in conspiracy with Reyn Barnido. Disbelieving him, I demanded proof. He told me that while Trixie informed me and the client (Josefina Norcio) that Belo would be indemnifying the latter in the amount of Php 25 million, the actual figure that Trixie was actually negotiating with Belo was in the amount of Php 50 million.



Trixie’s driver provided me with 2 copies of the settlement – one document reflecting the amount of Php 25 million and the other, reflecting the amount of Php 50 million. It appears that Trixie had Josefina Norcio sign a Php 25 million settlement agreement and had Norcio’s signature forged by a certain Pascual to reflect Php 50 million in another document. In short, the Php 50 million peso settlement document will be the one she will show to the Belo camp in order to receive the Php 50 million and will just turnover Php 25 million to Josefina Norcio, pocketing Php 25 million for herself and Reyn Barnido.



After discovering this betrayal, I confronted her in a meeting in a restaurant in Araneta Coliseum where she reacted by shivering and constant smoking and unable to satisfactorily answer my questions and instead demanded who was the person responsible for revealing this information to me. I told her not to worry though as I am not mad at her and instead shifted the blame to her cohort Reyn Barnido so as not to severely embarrass her. I also planned to play her against her cohort Reyn Barnido in order to split their ranks. I planned to use Reyn Barnido as an informant against the activities of Trixie by giving him money and promising him PR rackets from my circle of clients/contacts who have PR needs.



I, however, decided to kick her out of my law office as soon as I bounce back from my plodding law practice – predictably so – after the May 2010 elections. From March onwards until May, June, July, Trixie would hardly set foot in our law office.



Sometime in July, after taking the cause of Manny Villar whistle-blower Resty Mendoza (former lawyer of Manny Villar who exposed Villar’s corruption a week or so before the elections coinciding with the Vista Land expose of Former President Erap Estrada), I offered Resty and my Sanlakas comrade Luke Espiritu to join me in building a law practice. They are both Utopians and know of Trixie’s husband who is their fraternity brod.



At around the same time or probably just a few weeks prior, my ex-Shanghainese girlfriend sought my help on behalf of her employer, Internationally-acclaimed Shanghainese ink painter Zhou Jun who, upon her prodding and advice, decided to hold an art exhibit here in Manila but had problems with her retained events coordinator/planner/PR. Seeing this as an opportunity to play Reyn against Trixie, I recommended Reyn to be the events coordinator but expressly instructed him not to include Trixie in this project. However, as things turned out, he confessed that he divulged this information to Trixie and in fact, halved the work – and the Php 200,000 PR fees – with her.



When Zhou Jun arrived in the Philippines a week or so after the Manila bus-taking incident, he was following up on the progress of the art exhibit. Zhou Jun realized and complained to me that the person I recommended to him and to my ex-gf was just asking money from him without actually doing anything for the art exhibit. In short, the events planning and related PR work were not delivered by Reyn and Trixie. Worse, Reyn and Trixie concocted a story they both told to Zhou Jun that Vivian Tan will be buying most of his paintings.



Severely embarrassed by my act of recommending Reyn who halved the work with Trixie, I took it upon myself to contact my rich, art-loving friends to buy Zhou Jun’s expensive paintings. And since until August-September 2010 Trixie was still officially my “partner”, I assured Zhou Jun that Trixie would at least return ½ of the Php 200,000 fee he had already paid to her and to Reyn. Trixie even went to the office once and loudly assured – on her lawyer’s oath -- that she will return the Php 100,000 to Zhou Jun, a fact which was witnessed by my 2 staffers and by Attys. Mendoza and Espiritu. Trixie never returned the Php 100,000 to Zhou Jun despite numerous cellphone conversations with him guaranteeing payment.



Incensed by Trixie’s scam, for the first time in months, I went to see Josefina Norcio’s live-in partner Jun Calle (who died a few months later of a heart attack) to report to him of Trixie’s scams and later on visited Josefina Norcio who revealed that Trixie and Reyn did not even remit a single cent to the PR company and further revealed that the two have made hundreds of thousands worth of unliquidated cash advances. After a heart-to-heart talk with Josefina Norcio and Jun Calle, we realized that Trixie and Reyn were badmouthing me to her and I also told them that Trixie told me that the couple both hated me, a fact which they denied. In the vernacular, “inintriga at pinagsabong kami nina Norcio” so that we will distrust each other and so that Trixie and Reyn can pull off their Belo settlement scam on us.



Soon thereafter, some media people who got wind of Trixie’s scamming of Zhou Jun approached me and revealed to me that even during the period of elections, Trixie and Reyn had the habit of leaving only Php 500 from Php 5,000 envelopes intended for “media budgets”. In otherwords, bumubukol at pumipitik si Trixie sa mga media budgets.



On Sept. 28, which was my birthday, I kicked out Trixie from the law office.



After kicking her out, I had her cases inventoried and found out the following from my 2 staffers (who, incidentally were brought in to the law firm by Trixie since they both worked for her during her stint at the National Commission for Culture and Arts) and found out her pattern of demanding attorney’s fees from clients and after payments to her have been made, she fails to render any legal service. Two clients who were cheated by Trixie are Cleo Dongga-as in an Annulment and John Haber in a Carnapping case.



I also asked people connected with the National Commission for Culture and Arts about Trixie and was told that Trixie even stole from the Heritage Foundation in the amount of Php 240,000. My present staffers who worked with Trixie also told me how she has the habit of filching from the honorarium intended for artists and for bloating travel expenses in connection with her work with the NCCA.



Trixie is presently connected with the NCCA as head for the monuments and historical landmarks sub-committee.