Palace defends Ermita from ‘Koala Bear’ controversy

Malacañang on Sunday took the cudgels for former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who is being accused as the man responsible for making public a masked witness claiming to have first hand knowledge of alleged fraud in the May 10 elections. “We are very confident that the former executive secretary can give a full and proper accounting," said deputy presidential spokesperson Gary Olivar in an interview on QTV’s Balitanghali. The “Koala Bear" videotape, which was first presented to the media in a forum Tuesday, shows a masked man claiming to have been paid by politicians to rig the election results. Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. called the supposed whistleblower “Koala Bear" because of the masked man’s similarities to the marsupial. Locsin heads the House Committee on Electoral Reforms and Suffrage currently investigating allegations of poll fraud. The whistleblower has yet to unmask himself in public and substantiate his allegations. Locsin said Malacañang protected the “Koala Bear," while the Commission on Elections said losing candidates might be behind this mysterious character. Over the weekend, Locsin tagged Ermita as the one responsible for the release of the whistleblower’s videotape. In a separate interview on Balitanghali Sunday, Locsin said that House Speaker Prospero Nograles gave him a copy of a DVD containing the whistleblower’s videotaped message shortly before a committee hearing last week. Locsin quoted Nograles as saying the copy allegedly came from Ermita. “I saw that [the whistleblower] was dressed as a koala bear. I asked where did this come from, and the Speaker said, ‘From Ermita,’" Locsin said. GMANews.TV called Nograles and Ermita on their mobile phones, but they did not answer, neither did they return the calls. Nograles lost in his mayoral bid in Davao City, while Ermita is a losing congressional bet in Batangas’ first district. —VS, GMANews.TV