ANGRY PALACE RESPONSE CRAFTED TO PORTRAY
 GERMAN BANK EXPOSE AS A DUD?

Was the quick and angry reaction of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and Malacañang to Rep. Alan Peter Cayetanos expose involving supposed German bank accounts a sign that the expose is just a story, or was it a carefully crafted spin?

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Malacañang s angry reaction was in total contrast to its delayed and meek reaction to his expose in 2003, where he linked the First Gentleman to the Jose Pidal bank accounts.

The quick and angry reaction of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and Malacañang to Rep. Alan Peter Cayetanos German bank account expose was not in any way the same to their delayed and meek reaction to the Pidal expose. In fact it took them quite a while before denying they knew or heard of Jose Pidal, only to be confronted by a TV networks research on the Arroyo family tree, Lacson said.

He said the Palaces angry response to Cayetano, which included a dare to prove his claims and a demand for an unconditional apology, may have been packaged to discredit Cayetanos expose as just a story.

Cayetano had bared the accounts as part of the supposed seven boxes of evidence supporting the impeachment bid against President Arroyo. The Lower Houses justice committee ruled last week the impeachment complaint was lacking in substance.

Was the story really a dud? Or have the accounts been carefully stashed away? Lacson said.

Lacson also noted that in 2001, he issued a dare of his own in responding to claims of dollar accounts abroad by then top spy Victor Corpus, self-proclaimed witness Angelo Ador Mawanay and self-proclaimed agent Mary Rosebud Ong.

I myself reacted to the Corpus-Mawanay-Rosebud dollar accounts yarn with a brave challenge to sign a waiver concerning those reported dollar accounts which Corpus rejected outright with the lame excuse of a misspelled surname in my prepared waiver. Mawanay has since recanted, Mary Ong is still in the unofficial payroll of the Arroyos while Corpus remains red in the face for being had, he said.