By Christine O. Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ronald Llamas. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Would an apology to no less than the President save his job?

Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas may know the answer today (Monday).

Llamas on Sunday said he had apologized to President Benigno Aquino III over last week’s incident in which he was photographed by an editor buying pirated DVDs in a Quezon City mall.

Five days after the Inquirer ran the story with a picture of him in the mall, Llamas finally broke his silence. He said he saw the President on Friday to explain his side.

“He told me I had to undergo internal processes and investigation,” Llamas said in a phone interview. Asked whether he apologized to the President for the incident, Llamas said he did.

Llamas gave no other details on what they talked about, saying he did not want to preempt the investigation results the Palace would be releasing by Monday, at the earliest.

Gov’t campaign

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. is expected to release a memorandum on the case.

”I do not want to preempt them,” Llamas said.

Asked whether he was prepared for whatever decision the Palace would have, Llamas simply said, “Yup.”

Llamas has found himself on the hot seat after the controversial photograph by Dona Policar, an associate editor of Bandera, appeared in the Inquirer and in its sister publication.

Policar saw Llamas buying what turned out to be P2,000 worth of pirated DVDs in a stall at Circle C mall on Congressional Avenue in Quezon City.

Llamas was accompanied by his two bodyguards when he bought the fake DVDs amid a campaign against film pirates launched by the government to get the country removed from the international “piracy watch list.”

When the Inquirer ran the story on Wednesday, Mr. Aquino said he would ask Llamas to explain but added that the controversy was not a top priority, given the “many problems” the country was facing, including a bomb explosion in Makati City and the killing of 15 fishermen off Basilan Island by unidentified gunmen [...]

Read the full story >> Llamas says sorry; fate hangs in the balance