Noynoy: No psychiatric test or talk about mental health

PINAMALAYAN, Mindoro Oriental — No psychiatric test and no more talk about mental health, and that's final. Sen. Benigno Simeon “Noynoy" Aquino III put his foot down on the matter as he will no longer comment on innuendos about his mental health, saying he does not want to continue dignifying his detractors. "So all I’m saying is if there are any more questions about that, I [have] said my piece. I am not their propagandist. I keep my silence on this particular aspect. I will not be a party to rewarding people who make false reports," Aquino said. He also said his decision not to take any psychiatric test is final, as taking it would only be falling into a trap his opponents have set. [See: Group dares Noynoy, presidential bets to take psychiatric tests] "Ang nagmumungkahi [kung] sundan sa trap na yan, ano ba tayo, isa’t kalahati tayo? Pinapaandar tayo ng taong nagkakalat ng di katotohanan. Sino ba ang matino na dapat pumatol sa klaro na false? Maliban ang di alam ang tunay sa di tunay. At ang di alam ang tunay, [siya] dapat pagsurihin ang kanyang kaisipan (Those wanting me to take the test must think I am mad. Who in his right mind will dignify something patently false? I think the one who insists something false is true should be the one to have his head examined)," he said. He pointed out that at least twice he has already been asked provocative questions on the matter at the end of a long campaign day when he was already physically tired. “All this is an attempt to get me mad. And sa totoo lang, we’re all very sleepy and tired. There are times I don’t know kung ini-instruct by various desks, tanungin mo pag natapos ang lakad o hapung-hapo, physically so run down ka na, doon ka tatanungin ng very provoking. And that has already happened twice," he said. (All this is an attempt to get me mad. There are times I don’t know if some news outfits deliberately instruct their reporters to ask me very provocative questions about my mental health at the end of the day, when I am physically run down. That has already happened twice.) Aquino brushed off the latest innuendos that came from newspaper columnists Carmen Pedrosa and Belinda Cunanan. Pedrosa claimed Aquino underwent neuro-psychiatric tests in Boston, administered by one Dr. Steven Aguilar, when Aquino was with his family in exile in the early 1980s. But Aquino said it was a “convenient" ploy by his opponents to question his mental health, as it would be virtually impossible to verify the claims as Aguilar is deceased. "Mrs. Pedrosa, I think everybody knows, has never written anything positive even [about] my mother and myself. I’m not sure if even my dad is included among the people she never wrote anything nice about. She’s a little better in making a story in the sense that we know Dr. Aguilar who happens to be deceased, whose wife has recently been here. They were part of the Filipino community in and around Boston at the time we were there," he said. He similarly brushed aside claims by Cunanan, including one where he supposedly tried to intervene in a congressional investigation of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). Aquino noted Cunanan never named the lawmaker he supposedly approached, rendering her claim as innuendos. "Mrs. Cunanan’s husband is with government, appointed by President Arroyo to one of the government-owned and controlled corporations. And sayang (it’s a shame), she was one of those I really respected during Martial Law years. But I think I can easily give you 20 articles she wrote in a very negative vein against my mother especially after she (Mrs. Aquino) called on Mrs. Arroyo to resign, and me afterward," he said. Before Thursday’s press conferences, he said former National Power Corp. head Guido Delgado and his wife Joy were involved in spreading emails about purported documents about his supposed psychiatric tests. He said that since both spouses made similar innuendos, there is an indication of malice and they are open to legal action, although he said he is not personally prioritizing it. On the other hand, Aquino admitted there were times in his life that he wanted to get back at his critics, but pointed out he showed restraint in those instances. He also said that while he can also feel depressed, it is “not to the extent they (his opponents) are portraying." — LBG/RSJ/HGS, GMANews.TV