LP Senate bet claims NP to use fake psych reports to disqualify Noynoy

If Liberal Party senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel is to be believed, the Nacionalista Party will use the fake psychiatric reports on Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in filing a disqualification case against him. In a statement issued Monday, Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel said "a very reliable source" within the NP said the contents of the fake psychiatric documents about Aquino would be used even though the supposed signatories of the documents have attested that the records were just manufactured for black propaganda. "The signatures were forged, and yet the NP camp insists that the content of the documents is true despite the fake signatures," Hontiveros said. "The mental health issue did not gain traction, so they now want to use the documents to file a disqualification case. Desperate men resort to desperate and foolish measures." Promptly, spokespersons for the NP denied Hontiveros' allegations, saying no such plan to use the fake psychiatric documents exists. "We have no knowledge of any 'fake' psychiatric report to be used for a disqualification case," said former congressman Gilbert Remulla, who is running for the Senate. Another NP senatorial candidate, lawyer Adel Tamano, said he also hasn't heard of any plan to seek Aquino's disqualification based on the fake reports. "If I will be asked or directed to file a case based on that fake report, I will refuse. I reiterate my stand that two psychological reports were fake and sham," Tamano said in a phone interview. Just seeking attention? Remulla said Hontiveros was "once again trying to catch herself some attention by raising this issue which has no basis," as he dared the congresswoman to bare her source. Last April 8, news broke out about a three-page medical report that bore the purported letterhead of the Ateneo de Manila University Psychology Department and the signature of Fr. Carmelo Caluag, SJ showing that Aquino had sought psychiatric help in 1996. Both the Ateneo and Caluag denied the authenticity of the document. [See: Noynoy: Psych claims smack of detractors' desperation] Last week, former National Power Corp. (Napocor) president Guido Delgado held a press conference and furnished reporters copies of an unverified report which indicated that Aquino suffered from depression and melancholia when he was 19. Delgado claimed he is a supporter of Senator Manuel Villar Jr., Aquino's chief rival in the May 10 polls. But Fr. Jaime Bulatao, SJ of the Ateneo de Manila University's Psychology Department who supposedly wrote and signed the report also denied the authenticity of the document. [See: Ateneo priest denies conducting psych evaluation on Noynoy] Even after the documents were proven fake, the NP and another presidential aspirant, Senator Richard Gordon, urged presidential contenders, particularly Aquino, to take mental health tests. A group of "concerned citizens" led by columnist Carmen Pedrosa has also made the same call. [See: Group dares Noynoy to take psychiatric tests] Aquino, however, has repeatedly said he would not dignify the fake documents by heeding such calls. [See: Noynoy: no psychiatrict test and that's final] — Johanna Camille Sisante and Amita Legaspi/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV