Ronald Llamas. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Would an apology to no less than the President save his job?
Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas may know the answer today (Monday).
Llamas on Sunday said he had apologized to President Benigno Aquino III over last week’s incident in which he was photographed by an editor buying pirated DVDs in a Quezon City mall.
Five days after the Inquirer ran the story with a picture of him in the mall, Llamas finally broke his silence. He said he saw the President on Friday to explain his side.
“He told me I had to undergo internal processes and investigation,” Llamas said in a phone interview. Asked whether he apologized to the President for the incident, Llamas said he did.
Llamas gave no other details on what they talked about, saying he did not want to preempt the investigation results the Palace would be releasing by Monday, at the earliest.
Gov’t campaign
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. is expected to release a memorandum on the case.
”I do not want to preempt them,” Llamas said.
Asked whether he was prepared for whatever decision the Palace would have, Llamas simply said, “Yup.”
Llamas has found himself on the hot seat after the controversial photograph by Dona Policar, an associate editor of Bandera, appeared in the Inquirer and in its sister publication.
Policar saw Llamas buying what turned out to be P2,000 worth of pirated DVDs in a stall at Circle C mall on Congressional Avenue in Quezon City.
Llamas was accompanied by his two bodyguards when he bought the fake DVDs amid a campaign against film pirates launched by the government to get the country removed from the international “piracy watch list.”
When the Inquirer ran the story on Wednesday, Mr. Aquino said he would ask Llamas to explain but added that the controversy was not a top priority, given the “many problems” the country was facing, including a bomb explosion in Makati City and the killing of 15 fishermen off Basilan Island by unidentified gunmen.
Buyers not liable
The Palace gave no other details on the investigation into the DVD incident. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the probe was going on but could not say who or what office was conducting it.
Valte said Malacañang would come out with a “notice” on the case “next week.”
In an earlier statement, the Optical Media Board (OMB) said buyers of pirated DVDs were “not criminally liable” under the Optical Media Act of 1993.
“The purchase of DVDs (that are not original and) not used for commercial activities does not entail liability based on the law on Optical Media. Those in the possession of the same, but who do not sell them, are not penalized,” said lawyer Coco Padilla, chief of the OMB legal division.
“That is what is stated in the law. We can only act based on the authority granted us by law,” Padilla said.
Law is antipoor
Fr. Eliseo Mercado, a leading peace advocate in Mindanao who is known for his propoor stance, said Llamas was not the issue in the case but the injustice done by some businessmen to poor Filipinos who could only afford to buy pirated discs.
Mercado said the antipiracy law was antipoor.
“If the originals are priced rightly and affordable, people will buy the originals. The poor have to be contented with clones and copies because they are within their reach,” he said.
According to Mercado, original copies cost between P350 and P500, while the faked ones are sold at P30.
“If the originals are priced at P50, there would be no need for the antipiracy law,” Mercado said. With a report from Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao