MANILA, Philippines??Hindi ako magnanakaw.?

Translated into English, it could mean either of two things: I will not steal or I?m not a thief.

To presidential candidate Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III, however, it was a campaign line original to him but which his now closest rival, Manuel Villar, was copying.

Villar?s camp ridiculed Aquino?s complaint.

?He must be smoking something and his imagination is running wild,? said one of Villar?s defenders, senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla.

Villar took a jab much earlier from deposed President Joseph Estrada for using orange as his campaign color.

In the case of Aquino, standard-bearer of the Liberal Party, it was the slogan.

He told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that since his ?I will not steal? line started becoming an effective message in his TV and radio advertisements, Villar adopted it, too.

Aquino said he remembered Villar uttering those same words at the Inquirer presidential debate at the University of the Philippines.

?He said ?Sa harap ninyo, sa mata ng Diyos, hindi ako nagnakaw ? Hindi ako magnanakaw? [In your presence and in the eyes of God, I did not steal ... I will not steal] or something like that. He said ?I will not steal,?? Aquino said at the Inquirer dinner.
?Isn?t that my line in my ad?? Aquino said.

?Villar himself had to make an ad of the same nature because it resonated, even the words,? he added.

Remulla, a former TV reporter, said Aquino?s complaint against Villar?s supposed copying could just be a result of the Liberal Party candidates declining survey numbers.

If there was any copycat, Remulla said, it would be the Liberal Party.

?They have copied us with their own way of combating poverty in a way that they don?t even understand,? Remulla said.

Text thief joke

Such play on words, however, was not lost on the ever imaginative ways of the Filipino as illustrated in a text joke that circulated even before Aquino and Villar debated over who?s not a thief or not or who?s a copycat or not.

The joke went: Noynoy?Hindi ako magnanakaw (I will not steal), Villar?Hindi na ako magnanakaw (I will not steal anymore), Gibo?Hindi ko kayang magnakaw (I cannot steal), Gloria?Wala na kayong nanakawin (There?s nothing to steal anymore).

Also copied position on taxes

But aside from supposedly copying his slogan, Aquino also accused Villar of copying his position on taxes?no new ones until collection improves.

?In [the] La Salle [presidential debate], he [Villar] adopted our position and our analysis. He just changed some details,? Aquino said.

Villar, Aquino said, later modified his position to avoid detection as a copycat.
Aquino said he didn?t take the supposed copying lightly and called it alarming.

?If somebody is tracking it every week, he [Villar] changes his position,? he said.

Aquino repeated his party mates? statements that Villar?s massive spending was the main reason for the Nacionalista Party candidate?s rise in popularity, or at least name recall.

?I am handsome?

?For every ad I had, he had 10. So, it?s like me saying ?I am handsome? while he is saying ?I am handsome. I am handsome. I am handsome. I am handsome. I am handsome. I am handsome,? Aquino said.

At a dinner with Inquirer editors and reporters on Tuesday, Aquino said Villar had run out of original ideas so that the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer had to resort to copying others.