MANILA, Philippines – It’s a Friday, and the President is in good spirits.
At an event with the Canadian community on January 24, a cheerful President Benigno Aquino III started the courtesy call with a joke – a joke about one of the country’s most notorious names, Janet Lim Napoles.
Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the multi-million pork barrel scam, is in jail for a serious illegal detention case. She is also accused of conniving with lawmakers to channel their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to her bogus non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in exchange for hefty kickbacks, and faces plunder complaints before the Ombudsman.
Aquino shared his joke, he said, in line with the Filipino tradition to find reason to smile despite serious problems. It also came a day after he engaged in a word war with Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.
The President said he received the joke via text message, which he then shared with his audience.
“Ngayon ho, ang pinadala sa aking text ay ganito nakalagay: Iyong ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’ na programa ay gagawin raw hong isang episode buhay ni Mrs. Napoles. So natural ho, dumating iyong mga scriptwriter, in-interview si Mrs. Napoles at itinanong ng iba’t ibang detalye,” he said.
(The text message I got went like this: The program ‘Maaalaala Mo Kaya‘ wanted to air an episode on Mrs. Napoles’ life. So it was natural that the scriptwriters came to Mrs. Napoles to interview her and ask her about various details).
“Sa bawat tanong po ng mga scriptwriter, ang sinasabi raw ho ni Mrs. Napoles, ay ‘Hindi ko maalala iyan.’ May tinanong na ibang bagay, ‘Wala akong maalalang ganyan.’ Pagkatapos ho ng lima o anim na oras sa kaka-interview, wala pa hong nasusulat iyong scriptwriter, hindi na po matutuloy raw iyong episode ng ‘Maalaala mo Kaya.'”
(But for every question of the scriptwriter, Mrs. Napoles said ‘Oh, I don’t remember.’ She was asked something else. ‘I don’t remember anything like that.’ After 5-6 hours of interview, the scriptwriter was unable to write anything and the episode of ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya‘ could not push through).
The joke pokes fun at Napoles’ hours-long appearance at the Senate, where she was probed by senators on the scam. Napoles frustrated lawmakers and viewers with her consistent response: “Hindi ko alam (I don’t know) or hindi ko matandaan (I can’t remember).”
Maalaala Mo Kaya is a drama anthology series aired on television based on true stories and accounts of the subject. The joke had earlier circulated in social media last week.
Thanking Canada
After his Napoles joke, Aquino skipped his prepared speech and went on to recount his younger days in Boston and described the cold, joking that he was grateful for Canada “for warming up the temperatures before it reached Boston.”
The President then talked about the crises the government faced in 2013, including the Zamboanga siege, the Bohol earthquake and Typhoon Yolanda, but praised improvements in the Department of Science and Technology “that is able to translate all of these data and make our citizens even more prepared than what they were.”
Aquino admitted the government was “hard pressed to meet all of the needs,” but said he was confident through it all “because there really was overwhelming support, not only from our countrymen but more importantly from the international community.”
He praised Canada and the “Filipino-Canadian community (which) prevailed upon the Canadian government to render its utmost assistance in the tragedy that happened with Yolanda.”
“So, previously there was warmth from the winter months, now there is the warmth from the love that you have bestowed and shown on our countrymen, and again on their behalf, I thank all of you for this really tremendous effort that enabled us to overcome and continue to overcome the challenges besetting our country as we try to recover, reconstruct, rehabilitate, and build back better,” he said. – Rappler.com
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.