MANILA, Philippines—ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. could be liable for fraud in Manny Pacquiao’s failed bid to switch channels in the coverage of his big fight on May 2 against Ricky Hatton, a respected lawyer-sportsman said Monday.

“There was evident tampering of a live contract,” said former Philippine Basketball Association commissioner Rudy Salud, the founding secretary-general of the World Boxing Council.

Told that it was Pacquiao who reportedly approached ABS-CBN in a move to rescind his live contract with Solar Sports, Salud said that did not make the “giant network” less liable.

“They have very strict rules on these contracts, and any move or effort to impair or infringe on them—from either side—is regarded as pure and simple fraud,” Salud explained.

Salud, an original Pacquiao diehard, said what had truly saddened him was the discovery that Pacquiao’s claim of fighting for his people and country was purely incidental in the boxer’s career.

“What surfaced was that Pacquiao’s priority in his big fights was, first and foremost, to earn enormous millions,” Salud rued.

Pacquiao had claimed the video footage where he announced he was joining ABS-CBN was not supposed to be aired last Wednesday.

“Ang sabi ko sa kanila (ABS-CBN) suriin ko muna kontrata ng Solar kung may breach of contract at saka tayo maglabas ng ganyang mga videos (I told them I’ll carefully study first if there’s a breach in my contract with Solar, then that’s when we’ll release the video),” Pacquiao said via phone patch in a press conference Monday at the GMA-7 compound.

“And then sabi nila sa akin, ‘Itatago na lang namin, hindi namin ipapalabas. Gawin mo na lang ito, sabihin namin sa iyo pag ipapalabas namin’ (And then they told me, ‘We’ll just keep it, we won’t air it. Just do this, we’ll tell you when we’ll air it’).”

Solar Sports earlier signed a block-time agreement with GMA-7, ABS-CBN’s fiercest network rival, to telecast the megabuck light welterweight bout with Hatton.

“He was misled,” said Solar Sports chair William Tieng. “I think he was, excuse the expression, taken for a ride, deceived by people close to him. And there’s a lawyer who tried to twist the facts against Solar.”

“Solar is putting all these things behind,” added Tieng. With a report from Jasmine W. Payo