MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III refused yesterday to lose his cool and said he won’t fall into the trap of his rivals’ insistence for him to undergo a psychiatric test and answer to fake psychological reports.
In Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro on Thursday and in Imus, Cavite yesterday, Aquino told reporters that his opponents were desperate to pin him down on bogus claims.
Aquino said the intention of those trying to portray him as psychologically unfit to become president was clearly to make him mad and fall into their trap. He said he would not give his rivals the satisfaction.
He stressed that columnists like Carmen Pedrosa and Belinda Cunanan had not written anything good about him and his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, and thus he saw no reason why they would be fair to him now.
Aquino said he was the “victim” of malicious and bogus psychiatric reports and must not be the one to suffer by being pressed to take a psychiatric examination.
“If we bite what is wrong, an established false, we want to make that which is false a reality. Are we not the persons who should be undergoing treatment?” Aquino asked.
Pedrosa had claimed Aquino underwent psychiatric tests while staying in Boston.
Pedrosa made the statement during a forum hosted by the Citizens for Right of Information (CFRI) led by Manuel Lino Faelnar.
Faelnar took exception to reports singling out Aquino.
He said CFRI is calling for all presidential candidates to undergo psychiatric and psychological tests.
“Ms. Carmen Pedrosa was talking about Noynoy but she was not speaking for the group. CFRI invited Ms. Pedrosa to expound her views. Our position is all candidates for President of the Republic should submit themselves to psychological/psychiatric tests,” Faelnar said.
Aquino said Pedrosa was a “little better in making a story” because his family knew the doctor that she was referring to. He described the doctor as a family friend but whom he did not talk with professionally.
He said the doctor “happens to be deceased, whose wife has recently been here” and who were part of the Filipino community in and around Boston at the time they were there in the early 1980s.
The report supposedly stated that a certain Dr. Steve Agular treated Aquino when his family was living in exile in Boston.
The wife of Agular, however, claimed there is “absolutely no truth” to the report that her late husband treated Aquino for psychological disorder.
“Aquino was not even a patient of my husband. I condemn the use of late husband’s name in these attempts to smear the reputation of Aquino,” Dr. Rosario Agular said in a statement.
Aquino lamented those who released the psychiatric reports against him did not bother to check their facts.
Aquino said the dentist wife of the psychiatrist was the one who treated him.
He said the last time he saw the psychiatrist was when they left his father’s dog for them to deliver it to a family who would take care of it.
“The dog had gotten used to winter (and) would have a difficult time in the Philippines,” Aquino said.
But Aquino said instead of getting mad, he was thankful for these vicious attacks because they seemed to push his ratings further up.
“They’re really trying to set me up,” Aquino said.
Aquino said he did have depressing moments in his life especially when his father was assassinated in 1983 but not “to the extent they are portraying.”
’’Di ako makina, may emotion ako (I’m not a machine, I also have emotions),” he said.
He said his family had not yet obtained justice for his father and that those who masterminded the killings remain scot-free.
Aquino said as much as he did not want to reply to questions about the issue further, some media people appeared to have allowed themselves to be used by those propagating this kind of news.
“Somebody comes up with something… patently false, and we are all participating in giving them media exposure and perpetuating a lie… Are we still in search of the truth or are we propounding the truth as seen through the eyes of my opponent which is not the truth?” Aquino said.
“All this is an attempt to get me mad. And (the truth is) we’re all very sleepy and tired. There are times I don’t know if the reporter is instructed by the desk to ask provoking questions after a campaign and you’re physically run down… And that has already happened twice. So all I’m saying is if there are any more questions about that, I said my piece. I am not their propagandist. I keep my silence on this particular aspect. I will not be a party to rewarding people who make false reports,” Aquino said.
Aquino also said he was not fond of halo-halo as Cunanan had written.
Aquino said Cunanan even wrote an “innuendo” about the Subic-Clark-Tarlac-Expressway.
Aquino said Cunanan’s husband is with the Arroyo government, having been appointed to a government-owned and controlled corporation.
Aquino and LP senatorial candidate Neric Acosta also tagged the wife of Guido Delgado, former National Power Corp. president and staunch supporter of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer, Sen. Manuel Villar, as the one who forwarded the message about his first fake psychiatric report.
Then it was Delgado who presented the second bogus psychiatric report.
But he said he would no longer waste time filing legal action against the couple because there were too many concerns especially as regards the automated elections. – with Delon Porcalla