Noynoy: Psych claims smack of detractors’ desperation

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – Presidential aspirant Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III on Thursday laughed off the information circulating on the Internet regarding his mental condition. “You know, anybody who reads it sees how ridiculous it is. Obviously, it’s a plan," Aquino said in an ambush interview during a rally here. “They are so desperate they are not scraping a barrel. They are inventing a barrel from where they are scraping stories from," he added, alluding to his political opponents. Aquino was referring to supposed three-page medical report that bears the purported letterhead of the Ateneo de Manila University Psychology Department and has the signature of Fr. Carmelo Caluag, SJ showing that he had sought psychiatric help in 1996. A scanned copy of the report has been circulating on the Internet. Caluag, in a statement, denied preparing the report. “I have just read the said report and would like to put it on record that it is definitely not my work. I am a teacher, educator, and priest both by training and vocation. I am in no way competent to make any psychological assessments and, much less, write such a report," he said. He also said he was never connected with the Ateneo Psychology Department. “The date of the report, 1996, would indicate, as people in the Ateneo know, that my assignment then was principal of the Ateneo de Manila High School." Ateneo likewise denied conducting a psychiatric test on Aquino. “The Psychology Department would like to correct this fallacious information. The document is false; no faculty member or other professional affiliated with the Psychology Department has ever conducted a psychiatric assessment of Senator Benigno Aquino III," it said in a statement. Caluag said his signature in the spurious report was probably lifted from any of the letters he wrote to Ateneo de Manila alumni from 2000-2005 to greet them on their birthdays. “I personally signed each letter, since I did add a personal note to alumni I knew personally. As such, this signature would be very accessible to someone who would think of forging my signature by attaching it to a document and circulating it electronically. Aquino predicted that the next wave of emails against him may involve documents supposedly from Boston Hospital showing that he has psychiatric history there. “I never entered any hospital in Massachusetts not only in Boston. I only entered a dental clinic to have my teeth fixed, in the course of two years and three months stay in Boston when we were in exile," he said. - KBK, GMANews.TV