6 March 2008: meta Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando hassu hazin
This is the transcript of two telephone conversations on 6 March 2008 between Gordon Pisani (who gave evidence last Tuesday before the PN executive) and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The first one took place immediately after a television debate between Lawrence Gonzi and Alfred Sant was recorded at PBS. Sant had brought out a copy of a contract which he said was Jeffrey Pullicino Orland’s (the way he refers to him) for Mistra. The contract copy was shown to camera.
GP: Jeffrey, int għandek kuntratt dwar il-kirja tal-Mistra.
JPO: Għaliex?
GP: Alfred Sant għadu kemm wera fuq it-television il-kuntratt li għandek dwar il-Mistra. Int għandek kuntratt.
JPO: Qed iħossni ħażin.
GP: Aqbad u ejja l-istamperija issa u ġib kopja tal-kuntratt u għaddih lil Joe Saliba. Din ġdida.
JPO: Qed iħossni ħażin. Ma niflaħx.
GP: Ma jinteressanix. Ara f’hiex daħħalt lill-Partit. Ejja issa.
JPO: Ma niflaħx niġi.
GP: Se nibghatlek messaġġier biex jiġi għalik id-dar.
JPO: Ma niflaħx niġi.
GP: Il-kuntratt li għandek ta’ mijiet, eluf….?
JPO: Mhux aħjar ma tkunx taf?
GP: Għexieren ta’ eluf?
JPO: Ammonti kbar.
GP: Jimbarazza lill-Partit?
JPO: Ma niflaħx.
GP: Jeffrey, se nibghat messaggier għalik, biex iġibek l-istamperija u ġib kopja tal-kuntratt miegħek. Daħħaltna fi problema. Il-messaġġier ġej għalik id-dar issa.
JPO: OK
Now Gordon Pisani explains.
Dħalt Pisani Buildings fl-Uffiċċju ta’ Joe Saliba. Kien hemm ukoll Richard Cachia Caruana. Għidtilhom għandna problema. Jeffrey għandu kuntratt. Infurmajthom li bgħatt il-messaġġier għal Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando d-dar tiegħu.
Il-messaġġier mar id-dar ta’ Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando u ma fetaħlux jew ma kienx hemm. Wara li l-messaġġier ċempilli li ma kien fetaħlu ħadd, erġajt ċempilt lil Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando repetutament sakemm irrisponda ghaliex it-telefonati ma bediex jirrispondihom.
Finally, Gordon gets Jeffrey on the telephone.
GP: Jeffrey, ġie l-messaġġier għalik u ma ftaħtlux.
JPO: Se nara jekk insibx lift ma’ xi ħadd.
GP: Il-Partit qiegħed jikkrolla. Ejja issa.
Gordon Pisani continues to explain.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ġie xi nofs siegħa wara t-tieni telefonata. Ġie mal-Avukat tieghu Alex Perici Calascione u jien u Joe Saliba konna prezenti ukoll.
Jeffrey qal li l-kuntratt fittxu kullimkien fid-dar tiegħu imma baqa’ ma sabux u ma jiftakarx fejn għamlu. Għamel difiża tiegħu li kellu dritt li jagħmel il-kuntratt u ma hemm l-ebda korruzzjoni.
Qal li l-kuntratt għamlu biex ikollu income tajjeb dieħel.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando qal li ried jerġa jmur id-dar biex jerġa jfittxu. Telaq ma’ Dr. Alex Perici Calascione u ġew lura f’inqas minn kwarta bil-kuntratt f’idejn Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
Wara bdiet diskussjoni dwar x’kellu jsir u x’kellu jagħmel Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando minn dak il-ħin sa fil-għaxija fis-sens li johrog stqarrija u jmur ghand il-Kummissarju tal-Pulizija.
———-
Then yesterday, Gordon Pisani released this statement, after Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando actually objected to the testimony of his own witness (let’s not forget that Gordon was summoned by Jeffrey and nobody else).
Stqarrija b’risposta ghall-istqarrija ta’ Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando
Dr Pullicino Orlando ghazilni bhala xhud u issa jippretendi li ma kelliex nghid dak kollu li naf
L-ghazla li jien inkun xhud fil-laqgha tal-bierah tal-Kumitat Ezekuttiv tal-Partit Nazzjonalista kienet decizjoni ta’ Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
Ladarba ghamel dik l-ghazla jien mort quddiem il-Kumitat Ezekuttiv biex mhux biss nghid il-verita’ imma nghid il-verita’ kollha.
Wara li hu stess talab li jien inkun xhud u wara li tajt ix-xhieda, Dr Pullicino Orlando ma ghandu l-ebda dritt jghid li affarijiet li jien naf bihom ma kelliex nghidhom.
Il-kontenut tal-konverzazzjonijiet, u li xehedt dwarhom huma rilevanti ghaliex juru li dwar l-art tal-Mistra, il-Partit Nazzjonalista ma kienx jaf il-verita’ kollha. Il-Partit Nazzjonalista ma kienx jaf li Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando kellu kuntratt iffirmat quddiem nutar li kien ikopri xi zvilupp kellu jsir fuq l-art fil-Mistra u l-ammonti tal-kirjiet. Kull darba li kien mistoqsi, Dr Pullicino Orlando qatt ma qal li kellu kuntratt.
Il-Partit Nazzjonalista sar jaf bil-kuntratt il-Hamis 6 ta’ Marzu 2008, l-ahhar jum tal-kampanja elettorali. Fix-xhieda tieghi spjegajt li kieku l-Partit Nazzjonalista kien jaf il-verita’ kollha, zgur li kien jagixxi mod iehor.
Dr Pullicino Orlando mhux qed jghid il-verita’ meta jghid li jien sejjahtlu biex imur id-Dar Centrali fuq struzzjonijiet tas-Sur Richard Cachia Caruana. Is-Sur Cachia Caruana la kien hdejja, la talabni u lanqas kien jaf li se naghmel it-telefonata. Ghalhekk ir-rabta li qieghed jipprova johloq hi ghal darb’ohra zbaljata.
Lanqas mhu veru li jien ikkonfermat li s-Sinjura Daphne Caruana Galizia kienet imqabda biex tghin f’dik li Dr Pullicino Orlando qed isejhilha “Mistra campaign”. Jien spjegajt li Dr Pullicino Orlando kien kuntent u sodisfatt li s-Sinjura Caruana Galizia tikteb artiklu biex jigi pubblikat f’ismu skont l-informazzjoni li kien ta hu stess fid-29 ta’ Frar 2008.
Spjegajt li Dr Pullicino Orlando kien ferm komdu jiltaqa’ mas-Sinjura Caruana Galizia, tant li sahansitra ta business card bhala Kap tad-Delegazzjoni fil-Kunsill tal-Ewropa u qalilha li qed jehles milli baqghalu ghaliex dalwaqt kien se jkollu ohrajn godda ta’ Ministru.
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Daphne, I’m starting to forget, was this before or after he was seen crying on TV and before or after he had made an appearance as a journalist on TVM?
I forgot the sequence of events to be honest. The sequence is very important to understand how this story unravelled.
[Daphne – It was obviously after everything, Claude. The events described above – including the discovery of the contract by the PN via Alfred Sant – took place on 6 March. Polling day was 8 March, meaning that 7 March was the mandatory ‘day of silence and reflection’, so no political coverage or activities at all. Basically, when Jeffrey was crying in public and turning up at PBS with a press pass, he had been believed when he said he had no contract. He lied brazenly, including to me, while sitting on my sofa and telling whoppers.]
I remember thinking, even then, that JPO should have done the decent thing and resigned immediately after the election.
I didn’t know what he was like then.
Catch up with this new blog.
http://movimentprogressiv.blogspot.com/2012/07/il-politika-li-ghallimna-mintoff.html
http://movimentprogressiv.blogspot.com/2012/07/il-moviment-ghaddej-bxoghlu.html
What a dishonourable and deplorable way for an ex-green politician of the year and ex-wannabe Environment Minister to behave.
Isthi jekk taf kif Sur JPOS, fundatur presenti ta’ Wirdien Artna..
Fejn marru jinhbew il-Wirdien? Ma smajniex bihom aktar.
This infamous telephone conversation reminds me of the last three words uttered by Ugo Mifsud towards the end of his heroic and historic plea to the Council of Government in February 1942.
He fearlessly faced the might of the colonial government and the British Crown. That was, by any criteria, the darkest hour in the history of Maltese politics.
[Daphne – Best not mention Ugo Mifsud or you’ll set that Jeffrey off again. It was under Ugo Mifsud’s government that Jeffrey’s grandfather, Joseph Orlando Smith (he never knew him, but talks as though he brought him up) was imprisoned for sedition in spying for the British Secret Service. A lot of Jeffrey’s complexes seem to stem from that situation.]
Ugo Mifsud, patriot and statesman, in the best tradition of the PN , was fearlessly defending his compatriots.
With his hand pressing on his chest through his waistcoat he said for all to hear “Qed ihossni hazin”. He said no more.
He was developing an acute coronary syndrome, a massive infarct, which took him to his creator a few days later.
At just 52, Mifsud was in his prime.
He was fighting for his country and for his party.
He was married to the wealthiest person on the island.
He had all anyone could want.
He yearned for justice and gave his life for it.
Any further comment on my part is utterly superfluous.
I am sorry you mentioned Guze Orlando Smith in the context of a eulogy to Ugo Mifsud.
Guze was a neighbour of ours (and of your father and grandfather) in Valletta in the fifties.
The least said about him the better.
[Daphne – No, I’ve said quite a bit actually. You must have missed it. He was a friend of my grandfather’s and not just a neighbour. Lord Strickland pleaded Orlando Smith’s case in the House of Lords. Labour and the Strickland Party were both pro-British and anti-Nationalist.]
If Labour was pro-British then, when did it become anti-British and anti-Western Europe (under Mintoff or before)?
“Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando qal li ried jerġa jmur id-dar biex jerġa jfittxu. Telaq ma’ Dr. Alex Perici Calascione u ġew lura f’inqas minn kwarta bil-kuntratt f’idejn Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.”
Something baffles me: driving to his home in Zebbug, looking for the contract and returning to Dar Centrali in Blata l-Bajda in less than 15 minutes? JPOS must be Superman or at least Schumacher.
An afterthought. JPOS went to the MLP glass house down the road and borrowed the contract from Alfred Sant.
An excellent, highly entertaining satirical remark …. but then, a dentist should know a dentist ….. pardon.
JPO is so warped. I wouldn’t put it past him to vanish for a few days before the elections, have his wife make an announcement that he is missing, presumed assassinated for effect and propaganda; then reappear after the election results saying he took a sabbatical on a yacht in Sicily.
Someone prone to confabulation with grandiose delusions is capable of anything.
And yet, this man (JPO) has the brazenness to pose as a victim of machinations within the Nationalist Party, likens himself to a knight in shining armour, and is now colluding with the very political party which exposed his duplicity on the eve of the last general election in an attempt to win the election.
How is it, dear Daphne, that going through your blogg’s archives, one only gets till March 2008? I tried to take a look at the article you wrote about JPO and the Mistra saga back in February 2008, but the archives only gave me up to March 2008! Coincidence or convenience?
[Daphne – Dear Ray, my blog’s archives only go back to March 2008 because that’s when this website was set up: in March 2008, a few days before the election.]
Kemm hu injorant. Ray zgur Labour u jivvota lil Joe Mizzi.
Dear Lupin, have you noticed any rude names or adjectives in my comment? No!
I just enterd a comment and I had an answer from Daphne in a most civilized way! But enter a certain refined, cultural extrememly educated ‘Lupin’ who called me ‘injorant’, for just the reason he concluded that I do not have his same political views!
Congratulations dear sir, for you proved right the saying that the word is more powerful than the sword, powerful enough to describe the qualities of it’s author!