‘PN officials, MPs asked journalists to attack me’

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando yesterday claimed a journalist and a columnist had told him that PN MPs and officials had asked them to attack him following the general election of 2008.

Dr Pullicino Orlando took the witness stand yesterday in the libel suit filed by Malta’s permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, against the managing editor of MaltaToday, Saviour Balzan, for an article titled Why People Will Protest And Not Vote, published on May 24, 2009.

During the sitting, Dr Pullicino Orlando said he had been approached by journalist Vanessa Macdonald who had told him she had been asked by members of both sides of the House of Representatives to attack him for his plans to set up an open-air disco in the ecologically-sensitive area of Mistra Bay.

She did not reveal who these MPs were, but Daphne Caruana Galizia had told him that she too had been asked to attack him by a number of PN officials.

In a private conversation, Ms Caruana Galizia told him she had also been approached by Malta’s permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana.

She said that if he ever repeated this, she would flatly deny it.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said there had been a drive by some people to make it seem that he had lied to the Prime Minister about the Mistra issue, and to make him resign, but he had never lied and the Prime Minister had confirmed this.

Ms Caruana Galizia had supported him at first, and he had shown his appreciation, but recently she seemed to have changed her mind about him.

He knew that Mr Cachia Caruana and Ms Caruana Galizia were friends and therefore, when she had backed him initially on the Mistra issue, he thought that Cachia Caruana was also backing him.

The MP added that today, there was mutual respect between himself and Mr Cachia Caruana.

Following his claim in an interview last week that he had been coached by the PN about how to react to former Labour leader Alfred Sant’s accusations over his plans to set up an open-air disco at Mistra Bay, Dr Pullicino Orlando said he had also been coached by television talk show host Peppi Azzopardi.

Mr Azzopardi had coached him before he went on a televised press conference given by Dr Sant.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said he was not told what to say but how to tell the truth. He had also followed the instructions given to him by former PN general secretary Joe Saliba and Mr Cachia Caruana to the letter, because he had the party’s interest at heart.

During the sitting a confrontation was held between Ms Caruana Galizia and Dr Pullicino Orlando, and the former denied his allegations.

She said she had insisted on defending Dr Pullicino Orlando after the election amid calls for his resignation, and in hindsight this was a mistake as he had lied to her and to the Prime Minister.

She said nobody told her what to write and this could be confirmed by people who knew her, adding that had Mr Cachia Caruana pressured her to attack Dr Pullicino Orlando, she would surely not have told him about it.

Dr Pullicino Orlando had turned himself into a victim using MaltaToday and the Labour Party and had created problems for the PN.

In reaction, Dr Pullicino Orlando said he never trapped the PN or anyone and he had won the election for the PN in 2008. He said he stood by his claim about what Ms Caruana Galizia had told him.