Same last name: The perils of also being a Napoles

By Rouchelle R. Dinglasan, GMA News

Published August 31, 2013 8:49pm

“How are you related to Janet Lim-Napoles?” This is the first question that comes to mind whenever television and theater actor Jerald Guillan Napoles, 30, auditions for a new role these days.

This is also the “automatic” question for high school teacher Jessica Napoles, also 30, whenever she hands out a form to be filled out. Rather than be offended, though, these two just treat the question as a joke.

Illustrated by Analyn Perez.

“Kapag may nagtatanong, matatawa ka na lang kasi minsan, kahit di mo ma-explain, alam na nila na hindi [kayo] related. Isasagot ko na lang, ‘kung mayaman ako ba’t nagtatrabaho pa ako?’” Jessica told GMA News Online in a phone interview on Saturday, strongly noting that she is not related to Napoles as their family hailed from Bicol.

“Sa simula parang joke-joke lang pero ‘pag paulit-ulit, nakaka-inis na rin kasi kailangan mo lagi ipaliwanag,” she added.

At the center of the controversial P10-billion pork barrel scam is Janet Lim-Napoles. The businesswoman who purportedly funneled lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), commonly known as the “pork barrel”, to bogus non-government organizations to generate ghost projects.

Napoles was ordered arrested for the serious detention case filed by whistleblower Benhur Luy, when she went into hiding last August 14. After manhunt a two week manhunt , the embattled businesswoman surrendered to President Benigno S.C. Aquino III on Wednesday night. She is currently detained in a vacant office of the Makati City Jail.

Like Jessica, Jerald is not immediately related by consangunity to Janet Lim-Napoles. As his father told him, though, they might be distant relatives of the businesswoman’s husband, since the Napoles clan is relatively small when compared to the Cruzs, Santoses, Reyeses or other clans with popular last names.

“Napoleses are mostly from the Eastern Visayas Region. My grand lolo is from Samar,” he said.

Although no threats or offending messages have yet been sent to Jessica, Jerald told GMA News Online in a phone interview that people on Twitter have been randomly asking him questions like: “Kaanu-ano mo ‘yung baboy?”

He explained that he got messages like this because he jokes around the internet about his “Tita Janet.”

“It’s not entirely a negative thing that I am a Napoles. I just want to make fun. . .of it,” he opined. “Sinasakyan ko na lang. Minsan sinasabi ko: ‘sikat na sikat ang apelyido ko, hire me for projects!’” – KDM, GMA News

Tags: bantaykaban, janetlimnapoles, pdaf, porkbarrel