Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Melquiades Robles recently engaged the services of Hollywood celebrity lawyer Camille Vasquez in his defamation and invasion of privacy case against vlogger Claire “Maharlika” Contreras at the Central District Court California.
Vasquez joined the international law firm Brown Rudnick in 2018 as an associate in its Southern California office. Fresh from a successful case that lasted six weeks representing Johnny Depp in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, Vasquez also lists Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lopez among her star-studded clients.
Robles announced in a recent press conference that he filed complaints of defamation, defamation per se and invasion of privacy against vlogger Claire Contreras alias “Maharlika” before the Central District Court of California.
Robles wants to stop Maharlika from “continuously harassing and maligning them through her online vlog” and, in the process, to “defend the honor, name, reputation and dignity of his family.”
Based on reports, the Los Angeles California-based Contreras came into prominence during the 2022 national elections for favoring the partnership of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice-president Sara Duterte. But Maharlika initially gained popularity as a pro-Marcos content creator.
Robles claims his family underwent “daily barrage of vicious, unjustifiable and blatantly false attacks through Contreras’ YouTube Channel Boldyak TV,” which has over 325,000 subscribers and over 68 million views.
In his press statement, Robles continued, “for reasons unknown to us, she continues to deliberately spread malicious lies against us while also calling me various names that were meant to deride and denigrate my reputation.”
According to the complaint filed in the US court last July 15, Contreras began her “false smear campaign” against Robles in December 2023.
“In more than 20 separate videos that were posted on the internet and made available to the public, Ms. Contreras falsely accused the Robleses of everything – from contract killing and assisting terrorists to stealing from the Filipino people.”
Robles said in a separate press statement that Contreras reportedly included his wife and their children, who are minors, in the allegations.
“Ms. Contreras’ numerous false and defamatory statements detailed below have caused substantial harm to the reputations of the Robleses and diminished their esteem in their community and country.”
“Her posts include images of the Robleses’ minor daughter, recklessly posted without concern for the harm the Robleses and their children are exposed to,” it pointed out.
“Ms. Contreras’ posts have made Sherwil, in particular, afraid for the safety and well-being of her family, especially her children,” it added.
“The Robleses bring this action to hold Ms. Contreras accountable for her malicious and harmful online campaign against them,” the complaint concluded.
In Vasquez latest triumph in the Depp defamation case, the seven-person jury in Fairfax, Virginia, found that Depp had been defamed by Amber Heard in her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post as a “public figure representing domestic abuse” and was awarded more than $10 million in damages. Heard, on the other hand, was also awarded $2 million in damages by the jury. The Depp v. Heard trial was livestreamed around the world enabling Vasquez to have a significant surge in Google searches of her name and a hashtag of her name received over 980 million impressions on TikTok. Aside from that, Vogue called her an “overnight celebrity” as a consequence of the trial that promoted her from associate to partner at Brown Rudnick aside from being hired by NBC News as a legal analyst in January 2023.
