Rod Reyes cries foul over 'eviction' story

A seething Press Secretary Rodolfo Reyes denied yesterday a STAR report that he was evicted from the second floor of his Arlegui residence to accommodate President Estrada's chief of staff, Aprodisio Laquian.

"The truth is my wife and I are still staying in Arlegui. Nobody has asked us to leave. Neither have we packed up our things," he told a press conference.

Reyes, who announced he submitted his resignation to President Estrada last Monday, said he and his wife are actually occupying the ground floor at the far end of the northeast wing of the two-story residence.

"So how could we have been evicted from the second floor to give way to the Laquians?" he asked.

"If the reporter is being paid or manipulated by someone to hit at the Laquians, it should not be done at my expense," Reyes said.

He said he wrote to STAR publisher Max Soliven, whom he also called up yesterday, to complain and denounce the STAR's Malacañang reporter Marichu Villanueva for an alleged "unethical move" to get a favor from President Estrada.

In an interview by GMA Channel 7's Saksi, Reyes said Villanueva was asking the Chief Executive if it is possible for him to appoint a relative to the board of a sequestered television company.

"It is not my nature to speak ill of others, especially my fellow journalists," Reyes said.

"I have been criticized by Jarius Bondoc, Larry Sipin, Teddy Benigno, Dick Pascual, Amando Doronila, Conrad de Quiros, Cecil Arillo, but that's all right. We public officials should not be onion-skinned," Reyes said.

"But what I cannot take -- having been in this game, I love this game of journalism, for 48 years -- are the lies peddled in the news columns and reporters asking big favors from their news sources," Reyes said.

Reyes, however, admitted he has no way of verifying if there is a concerted smear campaign against him to push him to resign.

He sent a resignation letter to the President on Monday, but he said it was not irrevocable.

"And the President said, 'No, stay put at huwag mong pansinin iyang intriga (and don't mind the intrigues). We have to continue working as a team'," Reyes quoted Mr. Estrada as telling him.

"I also told the President na nag-aalala ako na baka sa paningin ng Pangulo ay hindi na ako effective as his press secretary (I am worried that the President no longer sees me as effective)," he said.

"I told the President that although my doctors in San Francisco have told me that my heart is still in good condition after two bypasses and an angioplasty, I do not want to abuse this prognosis by continuing to remain as press secretary with all its attendant stress and pressure," he said.

Reyes' emotional reaction to the STAR story generated an adverse response from members of the Malacañang Press Corps, who issued a statement of support for their embattled colleague.

Palace reporters stressed that they have no control over a story when it is being edited.

"We do not dispute Secretary Reyes' right to be upset by speculations about his continued service in Malacañang. Nor do we question his move to protest report6s concerning the intrigues he faces with other Palace officials," the press corps said in a statement signed by their president, Tony Velasquez. "We are aghast, however, that he still chose to vent his anger at a news conference, even after Ms. Villanueva had already explained how the story that was published in the STAR was vastly different from her original copy."

A mistake was committed by a STAR deskman in rewriting the story. STAR editor-in-chief Isaac Belmonte apologized to Reyes yesterday for the mistake.

Reyes, however, told Channel 7 that the mistake could have stemmed from Villanueva's lead, or first paragraph, in her original story, which asked if he was on his way out as press secretary. Reyes denied this, and his denial was carried in the original story.