MANILA, Philippines – Manila Times publisher and chairman emeritus Dante Ang told lawyer Lorna Kapunan on Friday to stop blaming him in the “high-level tri-media campaign” against her client Janet Lim-Napoles.
“Do your lawyer duties. Don’t just PR your client. Stop diverting the issue. Dante Ang (himself) has nothing to do with this. As their duty, the media people are simply telling the truth,” said Ang himself in an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990 AM.
A former public relations officer of former first gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, Ang defended himself against accusations by Kapunan that he led the media in “mind-conditioning” the public that Napoles was the alleged mastermind behind the P10 billion “pork barrel” scam.
Napoles was detained Thursday night in Makati City Jail after surrendering herself to President Benigno Aquino III. She was served, along with her brother Reynald “Jojo” Lim, an arrest warrant for serious illegal detention of scam whistle-blower Benhur K. Luy.
“I don’t have an idea how my name got involved in this Napoles issue. If it were true, I would proudly admit that I was the one behind her alleged media campaign,” he said.
He said the tri-media naturally sourced out news from media outlets that broke them like Napoles’ involvement in the “intricate web of corruption” by top politicians.
Ang, who said he never met Kapunan and Napoles, pointed out that what the lawyer wanted was to silence the media.
“The only way to fan the media hype against Napoles is for them to answer truthfully to every interviews,” he added.
Manila Times lauds Inquirer
The Manila Times publisher expressed his admiration for the “game changing exposés and extensive researches by the Philippine Daily Inquirer”.
“How will the press keep silent about this if from time to time, Inquirer exposes another anomaly of Napoles?” he said.
Ang admitted that it went to a point that he had to scold their paper’s reporters because they could not pick up stories similar to the Inquirer.
“In fact, we, in Manila Times, envy Inquirer. Naiiscoopan kami eh [We are being scooped],” he added.
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