NP senatorial bet slams 'supporter' over bogus psych report on Noynoy

A Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate on Wednesday blasted former National Power Corp. (Napocor) president and alleged party supporter Guido Delgado for releasing to the public a fake report on Sen. Benigno Aquino III’s mental health. "Smear campaigns, including those coming from [our party’s] supporters, should be condemned," said lawyer Adel Tamano in a text message to reporters. At a press briefing last Tuesday, Delgado furnished a copy of the report and claimed he supports Nacionalista Party standard bearer Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., Aquino’s fiercest contender in the presidential race. The bogus report, which suggested that Aquino suffered from depression in 1979, had the counterfeit signature of Jesuit priest and Ateneo de Manila University Psychology professor Jaime Bulatao, SJ. Hours after Delgado came out with the report, Bulatao rejected the document’s authenticity and denied conducting any psychological evaluation on Aquino, now the leading candidate in the presidential ring. [See: Ateneo priest denies conducting psych evaluation on Noynoy] On Wednesday, Tamano said the release of the fake report was a badly-executed move to discredit Aquino. "This does not help the NP’s cause and goes against the positive campaign that I have been pushing and our party and its supporters conduct," he said. Aquino and the Liberal Party had earlier criticized whoever was behind the fraudulent report, the second fake document on Aquino’s psychiatric condition. Villar’s Nacionalista Party had denied having any hand in the two fake reports. NP senatorial bet and spokesperson Gilbert Remulla also insisted the party had no knowledge of the fake document in Delgado’s possession. — Amita Legaspi and Sophia Dedace/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV