We could only watch in glee (and squirm, too) as Lacierda tried every spin in the book to justify why the Palace had to open its ornate doors to let The Most Hated Woman in this Part of the World walk the red carpet and turn herself in to BS Aquino, just hours after a P10-million bounty was placed on her head by the President himself. Lacierda even had a mini-lecture on why the term moro-moro should be erased from the lexicon to avoid offending Muslims.
The usually docile press corps had the audacity to ask if the outlandishly wealthy Napoles was a campaign donor to the Liberal Party in the 2010 and 2013 elections, given the kind of access she has to the President. Remember Napoles’ April 17 written complaint to BS, after which His All-Yellowness immediately directed authorities to investigate (which quite unexpectedly ended up blowing the lid off a P10-billion scam)? Palace journos even had the temerity to ask whether BS made sure Napoles would sing to his tune and not implicate any of his best buddies.
Can’t blame ‘em really, ‘coz it’s puzzling where BS found the energy to escort a certified scammer and accused kidnapper all the way to Camp Crame in Quezon City when he had already turned her over to media-shy Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and PNP Chief Alan Purisima. This is the kind of president who’d rather not appear at evacuation sites to avoid being a “distraction” to relief workers. But when it comes to making sure Napoles is “safe” in the hands of the law, “damay-damay na tayo”!!!
Of course, Palace press conferences will not produce satisfactory answers to these kinds of questions. All we know now is that Napoles wanted to surrender to BS Aquino because, to quote the Napoles camp, “he’s the person that we trust.” K.
Lacierda was ridiculously well-prepared with his talking points, he even had historical background courtesy of Palace historian-in-residence Manolo Quezon. That’s not all! The BS Comgroup made sure our taxes worked for us with the timely production of a “Briefer on Wanted Individuals Who Personally Surrendered to the Presidents” and the “Timeline of the Surrender of Janet Napoles: Account of the Presidential Spokesperson.” Kina-reer!
But since USec Manolo’s references are mostly to his “lolo” Manuel L. Quezon’s bygone Commonwealth days, Palace minions seem to have forgotten how Gloria Arroyo once got flak just for shaking hands with that “brain-eating” Norberto Manero. And so presidents didn’t meet fugitives in the Palace until now.
Even harder to believe was how Lacierda got wind of Napoles desire to surrender (via an ANC crawler!) and how he had never met Napoles lawyer Lorna Kapunan since leaving her law firm in the 1990s (despite knowing her mobile phone number).
We wonder, given the efficiency of Lacierda and the rest of the Comgroup at making themselves useful to the President, how they kill their spare time. Macbook-powered social-media trolling, perhaps? Let’s ask @lyndajumilla.
Source: The Spin Busters
Napoles 'detention', location leaked in US hours ahead of surrender
‘Palace scripted Janet’s surrender’