Palace: Napoles lunch with PNoy ‘pure fiction’
MANILA - Malacañang yesterday dismissed the claim of a former senator that alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet LimNapoles spent several hours, including lunch time, with President Benigno Aquino III prior to her surrender last month.
Former Senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad alleged in his column in the Manila Standard Today that Aquino spent several hours in “closed- door conversations” with Napoles before her surrender was announced to the media.
Citing “highly critical sources,” Tatad claimed that Napoles arrived in Malacañang around 10:30 a.m. on August 28 —the day of her surrender— and was accompanied by Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
The former legislator alleged that Napoles remained closeted with Aquino, Lacierda and Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas for the next six hours.
Other cabinet members who allegedly joined the meeting, according to Tatad, were Cabinet Secretaries Rene Almendras and Florencio Abad and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.
Tatad’s claims comes after the criticisms against the President and other officials for allegedly providing special treatment to Napoles, who is now detained in Fort Sto. Domingo in Laguna.
In a statement on Monday, the Palace described Tatad’s claims as “pure fiction.”
“The storyline pushed by Tatad is an obvious fabrication,” the statement said, explaining that Aquino was at two-high profile events with hundreds of attendees during some of the hours when Napoles was allegedly already in the Palace.
The statement also criticized Tatad, a former public information minister during the Marcos regime, for probably not being accustomed to “truthful and transparent reportage.”
“This grandiose conspiracy theory peddled by Tatad is symptomatic of the old order that has been swept away. He represents what is wrong with our politics,” the Palace statement said.