MANILA, Philippines - British economist Stephen Pollard is leaving his fate as a diplomat to Philippine and Asian Development Bank authorities in the face of possible loss of his immunity and diplomatic standing following the arrest of his stepson Jason Ivler.
“It’s up to the ADB and the (Philippine) government how to work that out,” Pollard told reporters yesterday at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City where he and wife Marlene visited Ivler.
The Bureau of Immigration is now on alert, monitoring the movements of Pollard.
The British diplomat said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has not contacted him, despite the agency’s pronouncement that he would also be investigated for possible complicity in coddling the suspect.
Ivler’s mother Marlene said doctors were still monitoring her son after he contracted pneumonia.
Ivler, who has been tagged in the killing of Renato Ebarle Jr. during a road altercation last Nov. 18, was transferred from the ICU to a regular private room on Friday afternoon.
He underwent surgery on Monday for gunshot wounds he sustained when he shot it out with arresting NBI agents.
The couple was with a teary-eyed female friend of Ivler who identified herself only as Amanda.
She said she has known Ivler for five years, even describing him as an “amazing person.”
Marlene said there was a “possibility” that it was her British bodyguard Mark Hauser who squealed on Ivler.
She said she was leaving it to law enforcement agencies to locate her missing bodyguard.
Average minds
Marlene said it wasn’t easy to understand her because many of her detractors were mangmang (dumb).
In an interview over dzMM yesterday, Marlene said average minds would not easily understand her.
“Ordinary people will have a difficulty understanding me and my behavior because most of them are dumb. Maybe the reason why they don’t understand us is that there is a big difference between the levels of our intelligence,” Marlene said in Filipino.
“We are geniuses. My intelligence is above most people,” she said. “Does that make me insane?”
A part of Marlene’s interview - aired in the program of Julius Babao and wife Tintin - was played in the program of Vice President Noli de Castro.
Philippine Psychiatric Association (PPA) president Dr. Norieta Calma-Balderrama, a guest in De Castro’s “Para sa Iyo Bayan” program, said Marlene’s statement was an expression of her “sense of entitlement.
Folk singer Freddie Aguilar, Marlene’s brother, meanwhile, rejected insinuations that he was among those who coddled his nephew Ivler.
He voiced his denial in an interview on the entertainment television show “Startalk” over GMA 7.
Deception
The NBI described Marlene’s statement as the “highest form of deception and cover-up to mislead the public and the authorities.”
“Her comment will further strengthen our case against her,” lawyer Reynaldo Esmeralda, NBI deputy director for technical services, said in a text message sent to reporters.
“The NBI has established that Ivler was at the scene of the crime (when Ebarle was shot). We have an airtight case,” Esmeralda said. – With Katherine Adraneda, Sandy Araneta and Pia Lee-Brago