[Closer Look] Overkill and overreach in controversy linking Liza Marcos to Tantoco’s death

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

Malacañang has a point in describing as bogus a viral copy of an alleged police report on the March 8 death of businessman Paolo Tantoco in Los Angeles. 

The release of the document aimed to drag First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos into a conspiracy to cover up the death of Tantoco, husband of Palace Deputy Social Secretary Dina Arroyo-Tantoco. 

He died in a room at the Beverly Hilton the morning after the hotel hosted the Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) gala. 

The event was a working trip for Mrs. Marcos and Tantoco’s wife, but Malacañang kept mum on his death until reports on the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner findings became available this week — more than four months after the incident. It traced the cause of death to “cocaine effects” and marked the case “closed.”  

Malice is a given in the drawn-out battle between the camp of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the family of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. 

But Malacañang’s actions and inaction brought this trouble to its own doorstep. 

Inconsistencies 

The primary sharer of the document betrayed his motives when he shrugged off questions this way: the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) records supervisor whose name appears on the document exists, so the burden of proof on the authenticity of the document is on Malacañang.  

We do not know the original source of the offending document. 

But just because the name of the BHPD records supervisor belongs to a real person doesn’t make a document genuine. 

We have the full copy of a March 12 response of the BHPD to a March 11 information request  by LA-based Philippine Post reporter Xenia Tupas. She consented to the publication of this document. Only the tracking number and signature of the records supervisor have been redacted.

Tupas first shared the document with me on March 13. She filed a Philippine Post story correcting social media claims that Tantoco died at the Waldorf Astoria.

Here’s a comparison of the contents of Tupas’ document (A) and the copy that earned Malacanang’s ire (B):

Document A: Released by the BHPD to journalist Xenia Tupas

Document B: Dubious letter circulated by Marcos critic

B does not bear the name of the recipient. 

B sows a slightly different page break than A. Underneath the pink shade cutting through the break in B are remnants of printed words.

Both have identical first parts. That changes in the Summary of Incident. 

The sentence that starts with “Officers entered the room” is in a new paragraph. And that is where the chasm widens. 

Document A says nothing about the cause of death. Nor does it mention scattered powder, much less identify this. It is also silent on any summons, lists no names.

Tone shift

Could someone else have written the BHPD to ask for the same document on the same day Tupas did? 

Anything’s possible. But the odds are very high against a BHPD records officer breaking protocol and acting like a gossip on a standard information process. 

That’s the a major behavioral lapse in that viral document. 

The BHPD states that it is not required to disclose any “{r}ecords of complaints to, or investigations conducted by, or records of intelligence information or security procedures…” of various offices. 

It adds: “The Records sought in the Request fall under this exemption and, therefore, will not be disclosed.”

Why then would it turn around and junk careful bureaucratese to offer an initial cause of death — without any tests done? The same on the identity of the powder supposedly found in the room. 

It sounds like DDS cops let loose the Beverly Hills police department.

In fact, when Tupas followed up on the incident on May 6, the signatory Donna Coursey replied: “Please be advised that the PRA letter that was provided is all the information we will release, there is no other information releasable to the public, only for law enforcement.”

That’s the clearest and most direct proof that Document B isn’t above board.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner took months to release the results of its tests. That’s not unique to the Tantoco case. The office’s official website explains that when a pathologist may need to run more tests in a body, “the County will issue a deferred death certificate.”

It adds that toxicology results can take between four to six months, “due to the thoroughness and quality of our lab testing, and significant increase in drug deaths in Los Angeles County during the past couple years.”

Its own worst enemy

In this furor, Malacañang is its own worst enemy. 

The Marcos government, beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s disinformation operation, should know better than most that lies spread faster and farther than catch-up truths. 

Yet, their initial posture was, let’s just hope this goes away. 

There was barely a peep about its condolences to the widow, who was assigned to Mrs. Marcos. Then, suddenly, we get Claire Castro’s rant and Dave Gomez’s, “it’s a private affair” excuse. 

They should have just handled it in a straight-forward manner: This is what the genuine doc says. They just sent alarm bells ringing with Castro’s strident Duterte-style overreach. 

“Obstructionist.” Big word!

Sure, the Duterte’s want to divert attention from their own problems. But many of the fiercest Duterte critics also question the handling of the LA affair.  

Any incident involving a potential crime (possession/use of cocaine), with just this  degree of separation from an official event, should be cause for concern. 

At the very least, it’s the national reputation at stake. And there is a very real question of security when persons on the fringes of Mrs. Marcos’ “entourage” engage in criminal activity.

The  Manila International Film Festival in LA ended with a gala night on March 7. But Mrs. Marcos and Mrs. Tantoco’s trip would technically have extended to that March 8 concert that started at 5 pm, five hours past the death. 

Mrs. Marcos couldn’t have been ignorant of Tantoco’s death the whole of March 8. Yet, there she was, bubbly, all Imelda-lite. 

The disconnect is startling but typical of the Marcoses, and a reason for their public relations problem. 

And they still don’t get it. – Rappler.com