President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Even to the president of the country, Janet Lim-Napoles is the butt of jokes.
In a bid to lighten up the mood after a string of natural disasters, President Benigno Aquino III mocked the alleged pork barrel scam brains before members of the Canadian Embassy and other Malacañang visitors on Friday’s Winter Escapade tour.
Aquino said he got a joke in a text message that the show “Maalala Mo Kaya” wanted to make an episode about Napoles.
And in every question by the show’s writers, Napoles could only answer “Hindi ko po maalala,” a reference to Napoles’ response to senators in a hearing on the alleged billion pesos racket involving lawmakers’ discretionary funds.
“So of course the scriptwriters came to interview Mrs. Napoles to ask her about details. And in every question, Napoles only answered: ‘I don’t remember that’,” Aquino said.
Aquino said the show’s writers eventually gave up on Napoles and threw the show to the bin.
“After five to six hours of interview, the writers have not written anything and eventually decided not to pursue the episode of ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya,” he said.
Aquino said he made the joke to show that Filipinos still manage to smile in the face of disasters that hit the country in 2013—the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol and the Super Typhoon “Yolanda” in Central Philippines as main tragedies.
“Filipinos find a way to smile in the face of trials to at least ease the burden,” the president said in Filipino.
The other spiels by Napoles in the Senate hearing were “Hindi ko po alam (I don’t know)” and “I invoke my right.”
RELATED STORY
Aquino allies seek transfer of Napoles to regular jail
Napoles daughter files counter-affidavit on tax case from London