That candid interview with Napoles
If I were Lorna Kapunan, I would whack my client, Janet Lim-Napoles, on the head for messing up during an interview with Inquirer editors, columnists and reporters.
The transcript of the whole interview has been made into a series on this paper’s front page.
In that interview, Napoles was like a child trying to lie her way through and getting trapped in her own web of lies.
Kapunan, who has threatened to file libel cases against Inquirer editors, reporters and columnists for writing about her client, must be pulling her hair in frustration while she was reading the interview.
The lawyer said what had been written about Napoles were all lies.
Napoles has been accused by her former employees of stealing from the government P10 billion worth of pork barrel funds.
I was laughing like a mental patient while I read yesterday’s (Monday’s) installment of the interview.
(I missed last Sunday’s interview, the first of a series, because I was in my farm in Puerto Princesa City.)
I thought to myself, “Why did Kapunan allow Napoles to be interviewed alone by the Inquirer knowing that her lies would be discovered?”
How could she now convince the public and the courts that her client was just a victim of bad publicity?
* * *
There were many portions in that interview when Napoles was caught lying through her teeth as she denied that she had anything to do with the alleged P10-billion scam.
One of the most telling was when Joey Nolasco, Inquirer managing editor, asked Napoles to talk about the inaccuracies she found in the reporters’ stories on the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
She pointed to Kapunan as putting words into her mouth.
“Ah kasi [unintelligible] si Atty. Kapunan ng kaso. Nilagay niya (Put words into my mouth). Eh dun na lang. Baka magalit sa akin yung abogado (That lawyer might get mad at me),” Napoles said.
(I’ve translated some portions of the interview into English and put in words that were missing.)
Nolasco: You mean, Mrs. Napoles, you didn’t know (that Kapunan said our reporters were lying)?
Napoles: I didn’t know. Because, of course, it’s in the newspaper. But not all that was written in the newspaper could be the subject of a libel case.
Nolasco: So, what was inaccurate that was written by our reporters about you? Can’t you say anything?
Napoles: Of course, there was inaccuracy.
Nolasco: What was inaccurate?
Chato Garcellano, Inquirer opinion editor: Tell us now.
Mike Suarez, news service chief: Tell us.
All Napoles could say was “Hmmmmm….”
* * *
Randy David, columnist: What’s your kind of business?
Napoles: Me? Coal, sir, in Indonesia.
Gil Cabacungan, senior reporter: What’s the name of your coal company, ma’am?
Napoles: The name of my company in Indonesia? When you get there, I’ll tell you.
David: What’s the name of your coal company?
Napoles: There? When Korina Sanchez (ABS-CBN anchor) gets there [you’ll know].
* * *
A reader, who identified himself as Pepe Alas (@Pepe-Alas) on Twitter, commented that Napoles was “bullied” by Inquirer interviewers.
How could that be when she was given all the chance to explain her side in that interview?
Another person would have happily grabbed that chance.
That candid interview with Napoles would have won her sympathy from the public if she had been forthright with her answers.
