Napoles loses it
JANET LIM Napoles asked for it, and she got it: a meeting with (Philippine Daily) Inquirer columnists, editors, and reporters. The latter agreed, thereby giving Napoles the rare opportunity to present to its entire staff, including its publisher, her side of the story re her supposed plunder of government resources.
What did she intend to accomplish? What else but to charm the staff of what’s conceded to be the most influential Philippine broadsheet into believing that she’s a regular gal, and not the monster of deceit, corruption, and monumental egotism that the stories it has been running suggest she is, among other unflattering images.
But the main intent could not have been other than to so convince the public via the stories she thought her charming presence in what the Inquirer billed as a roundtable discussion would generate that she couldn’t have possibly amassed all that wealth by, among other devices, defrauding the government and the people of this country of billions in pork barrel funds, and even siphoning into her and her family’s own accounts funds intended for disaster relief.
The name of that game is trial by publicity, of which the media, and the Inquirer particularly, have been accused in this as well as other cases. This time, however, Napoles was turning the tables on the press and the Inquirer: it wasn’t the Inquirer that was trying Napoles, but Napoles herself, through her own initiative using the press, she hoped, to convince the public of her innocence through no other means except her presence.
It certainly wasn’t through what she said. Social media have been ablaze with netizen observations that the lady was inarticulate, and couldn’t complete a sentence except one during what turned out to be an interminably ho-hum event. But she isn’t as clueless as her incoherence suggests. What should be apparent is that she didn’t ask for the roundtable discussion cum interview to pass the time, but in the awareness that, in the contest for public opinion, one needs to win over the media first, the rest will come later.
The bad news for Napoles is that she’s getting the opposite of what she wished for, and no amount of coaching by the public relations flacks we can assume she has in her payroll could have made up for her inability to pass herself off as just somebody’s mother whom the media have been unjustly raking over the coals.
Her proclaimed intention was to explain her side, but she was unable to do so, at one point declaring that she would answer the questions she was asked “in a proper forum”. That suggested that she didn’t want to answer the questions because she couldn’t, which helps explain why the meeting turned into an orgy of incoherence—and a public relations disaster.
Whoever advised Napoles had seriously underestimated the media, which can indeed be manipulated to suit even the most malicious agenda. Successfully doing that, however, requires at least two conditions. The first is that the particular medium has little or no stake in how the public will perceive the manipulator. The second is that the manipulator is someone the media are familiar with, or what’s even better, has some respect and even fondness for.
Napoles lost on both counts. Having first broken the stories about her, the Inquirer had its reputation for accuracy and fairness to defend, and despite its agreeing to the meeting, was not about to grant to its readers that it had compromised those journalistic responsibilities.
Napoles being previously a shadowy, behind-the-scenes figure, the Inquirer was also unfamiliar enough with her not to be for or against her initially, and to let the documents it had uncovered and the interviews it had conducted to speak for themselves. Without the kind of capital that could have predisposed a medium to favor her, Napoles’ less than exemplary performance before the Inquirer staff very likely generated negative perceptions among its staff rather than the positive ones she had hoped for.
Trial by publicity can cut both ways. Although usually used to convict an individual or group through adverse publicity, it can also be used to make someone accused of wrongdoing seem as innocent as a lamb, and even the hapless victim of malicious persecution. As Napoles has demonstrated, individuals and groups in the news, and not only the media themselves, can also play that game. Having played the game, however, Napoles must now face the consequences of losing it—an even worse press and adverse public opinion.
i read the verbatim transcript of the 2 episodes during the napoles’s “roundtable” visit through the inquirer.net. her intent to be there was a fiasco as her defensive-guilt-ridden replies to the people around she thought she can manipulate the way she believed she can manipulate the readers. i am that anxious to see the justice’s ax fall of the scoundrel liar’s head. God bless the long time raped Philippines!
a prudent assessment!!!
Well said. Although I was first confused with the article title and had interpreted the term “losing it” as going mad/crazy. Turned out to have meant losing the media game of trial by publicity.
Well anyone who goes to Inquirer with seemingly no script and thus sounding like a fool is batshit crazy
Ms, Janet may have thought to play it on her terms: make unfriendly media out there – fall in line for her dazzling bank accounts. She underestimated the adverse winds waiting to blow her to deeper shit.
Napoles. having requested the roundtable herself is really a person without any shame and conscience at all. Best for her to admit and serve her sentence.
I really pray something happens after all these things coming out. There should be transparency especially if money is involved. They dont own the money, its the country’s money and every citizen of Phil. We have the right to know.
Kudos to inquirer.
Based on Part 1 of the transcript, Napoles asked to meet with the editor-in-chief but was put before the editors, columnists and reporters. So, she wasn’t there to try to “charm” everyone but one one person — the editor-in-chief. And, in this country, trying to “charm” someone does not preclude bribery.
You cannot bend or break a woman named LETTY JIMENEZ MAGSANOC. She will not stop until the TRUTH OF THIS MATTER sees light.
this woman napoles is no monster but wicked and evil. she disregards norms, values and sensitivities of people. she would go the extent of corrupting the news and media to self-preserve herself and the irregularities and anomalies clearly her masterminding and leading. i hope PDI staff see those and put the real scores out on the person and criminal activities of the woman and her accomplices and accessories. let truth and professionalism in the media stand no matter what price must be paid.
She should just tell the truth and accept the consequences. The truth will set her free. Telling lies just makes it worse, she is now digging her own grave with all the lies.
Dean, I think you need to check how the Inquirer tweaked and billed the story. Parang nanalo naman si Napoles.
Janet Napoles believes, as she has believed all her life, that MONEY rules and buys anything and everything!!!!! She has been with “unprincipled” ;honourable’ people all her life that she probably told herself: “Inquirer Columnist lang yan”… pera lang ang katapat niyan……” To her, the GOLDEN Rule is to charm the ed-in-chief with lots of zeros…. but the ed-in-chief is the feisty LJM!
Napoles must have been ready with negotiations on cash settlement – not on questions of what has been reported erroneously / improperly / unfounded by the Inquirer. She did not do her assignment pretty well – she did not do any research; she just based it on her instinct that she has enough money to silence the reporters….
I am looking forward to part 4 of the “round table discussion” and await with bated breath Korina’s interview / report on her visit to Napoles businesses in Indonesia. Whoever said then that the “Problem with Mar is _______________ ????
Abangan natin kung ano ang makikita ni Korina sa Indonesia.
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Excerpt of the part 2 discussion:
“David: So, ano po ang negosyo ninyo?
Napoles: Kami po? Coal po sa Indonesia. Pupunta na ho ang channel something, pupunta ho dun.
Cabacungan: Anong pangalan, ma’am?
Napoles: Dun? Pagpunta niyo na ho dun.
David: Anong pangalan nung coal company ninyo?
Napoles: Dun ho sa Indonesia? Pagpunta na lang ho nila Ma’am Korina (Sanchez).”
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If I am in the eye of the storm and I really, honestly do have business interests, I will flaunt these to the columnists and tell them to “eat your heart out – I have legitinate businesses…” Pero kung nangangapa ka nga ng isasagot mo, eh di wala… Kaya I want to read what Korina will report on this….
Matapang na tanga…. that would be my description for a person who goes into the lion’s den and make a fool of herself!!!!
This is how the recipients of PDAF can legally acquire government funds. Ms Napoles was just the COHORT of these people. She only get her “percentage” share of the loot of course some government agencies also have their dividends. ” Saan ba naggaling ang kapal ng mukha ng mga taong ito….” One Trillion PDAF?????
I love u all, you make proud as a filpino again….
Napoles was there to make “pa-cute.” That’s how she was able to scam politicians, military men, lawyers, government executives, even priests. Let’s see if she succeeded with the Inquirer. She will try to do that everywhere–with NBI, DOJ, and if she gets her way, even the courts. Ramble along inarticulately, with no logic nor any particular direction, and hopefully by the end of the day obfuscate everything. The only place where she cannot do that is the court, assuming the judge stays clean. But then there’s a great possibility he won’t; he’s human like the rest of Napoles’s cohorts and victims.
Janet Napoles went to the Philippine Daily Inquirer hoping she could have a one on one interview with the Chief Editor and ended up in the Lions’ den. It’s puzzling whey she went without her lawyer who when she sleeps, lies on her right and lies on her left (lawyers’ joke).
With the scam she did, she stole our progress as a nation, hindi siya pinagtakluban ng langit at lupa? She has a very strong heart not to have a heart attack with all those questions, she answers only, “ano…malalaman nyo ang name ng mining company ko sa Indonesia pag nagpunta kayo don,” duh! You have to give it to her, walang fear, walang conscience, walang Diyos! Walang kaba. Nakahiga sa pera ng bayan. ARGH! KARMA IS UNIVERSAL. IT IS NOT AN OPTION. IT IS REAL. IF IT DOES NOT HAPPEN TO YOU, IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR LOVED ONES AND SO FORTH…AND SO FORTH!
Pero parang di tabla. Pagbabayaran ang lahat ng ginawa sa bayang Pilipinas at mahihirap na Pinoy.
You and your cohorts should pay the consequences of your dastardly acts. It’s inhuman, dahil dami POOR. No eat, no bahay to sleep. Our leaders have no compassion. Narcissistics!