Finally, celebrity fugitive Janet Lim Napoles surrendered to the police in Camp Crame last Wednesday evening. Then as the early morning reports said, Mrs. Napoles was whisked immediately to Malacañang because she wanted to talk to Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III. Now it just makes me wonder why was Napoles, a fugitive, allowed to go to Malacañang to meet with the president? What kind of drama was being hatched inside Mala-cañang? Did Janet Napoles really asked to see the president to get his assur-ance on her security or did they concoct some kind of secret deal? We'll never know!
The bigger question is…if Janet Napoles surrendered in Camp Crame…why was there a need to bring her to Malacañang? So that Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III could take credit or get "Pogi" points that the nation's celebrated fugitive surrendered to the president? They may call it a PR coup…but it only spews out more questions or rumors than answers.
The reason why we are suspicious about that meeting is due to the fact that Malacañang just recently fired Mr. Brian Yamsuan, a consultant under the Office of Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa for allegedly using his Mala-cañang influence (being the husband of an Inquirer staff reporter) to arrange for a one-on-one interview with Napoles and the Inquirer staff a couple of weeks ago. Then the news reports came out that the president had ordered Brian Yamsuan fired…but this report came out only two weeks later.
This is our proof that Malacañang spokesmen are pushing hard for some kind of damage control…that the Napoles caper won't spill and taint the Aquino Presidency. So why was the firing of Yamsuan reported only two weeks after he was fired? Social networking sites are abuzz that perhaps Na-poles was a huge donor to the Aquino campaign kitty via Jojo Ochoa. So let us ask the executive secretary whether these allegations are true or not? If only Malacañang spokesmen always told the truth, we won't be as suspicious when such things happen.
With Janet Napoles in police custody, the question is will she be turned into a state witness by the Department of Justice? If this happens, I'd like to know whether there are strings attached to this? A future presidential pardon perhaps? It is easy to convince her to become a state witness for as long as she doesn't link anyone in Malacañang to the P10 billion scam. At this point, we'd like to warn Malacañang…to be very careful.
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Last week, I got a strange text from someone asking me to sign a form to allow the remains of the father of the late Regal Actress Claudia Zobel (her real name was Thelma Maloloy-on) to be buried in the plot where her remains were interred. This was featured as a front page story in The Freeman yesterday. Anyway I learned that the cemetery plot where she was buried was in the name of Century 21 Cinema… our family business. So I went over to Queen City Gardens to sign the form so she could be exhumed.
This incident made me recall that late in Feb.19, 1984, I was staying in a hotel in Avenida Rizal owned by Regal Matriarch Mother Lily working as a booker for the family when around 3 a.m. I got a call from her…frantically asking me how to reach her family in Cebu because Claudia Zobel met an accident in EDSA. Unfortunately, I told Mother Lily that I never knew her family nor have I ever met Claudia Zobel personally, although she's had a few sexy films with Regal Films. I told Mother Lily that I will just call the office in the morning to find out where her family lives.
By 6 a.m. Mother Lily called me again to tell me that Claudia Zobel had expired. So instead of working that day, I stayed in the hotel calling my office and friends in search of her family. They were contacted by late after-noon, and I went to her wake in a funeral home in the Guadalupe area in EDSA. It was the first time for me to see Claudia Zobel face-to-face inside her casket. Since Regal Films has no office in Cebu, Mother Lily gave me in-structions to prepare some expenses for her burial in Cebu and she did reim-burse me for all those expenses. So in the end, I accompanied her remains from Manila back to Cebu City to her waiting and grieving relatives.
I also learned some details of her accident…that she just learned how to drive and she was driving a Mitsubishi Colt owned by her hairdresser. As they came from a nightspot in Roxas Blvd… it was assumed that she was driving under the influence. During her wake, I provided the family with the snacks for the guests…and even heard some radio commentators whisper that I must have been her lover…something that I just laughed. Her burial was a star-studded riotous event that Cebu had never seen before. That's a tale of my own history. Mother Lily and I are still close friends today.
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