NO Palace emissary.

Thus said presidential political adviser on political affairs Ronald Llamas as he belied reports claiming he was the Palace emissary to the  Iglesia ni Cristo seeking to exert pressure on former Justice chief Serafin Cuevas to quit as lead counsel of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In a press statement, Llamas said no one from Malacañang talked with the INC to exert pressure on Cuevas.

"There was no emissary from the Palace — not I nor anyone else — for the simple reason that there was no pressure exerted whatsoever by Malacañang either on Justice Cuevas or the INC," Llamas said.

Reports earlier identified Llamas as the one who supposedly approached a spiritual minister of INC to talk to Cuevas.

Earlier, Cuevas was quoted in a report  as saying that Malacañang was pressuring him to quit Corona’s camp in exchange for reinstating sacked National Bureau of Investigation director Magtanggol Gatdula, who is an INC member.

But the retired justice belied the report.

Llamas said Cuevas supposedly initially claimed the emissary was a former student of his. Another from the Cuevas camp identified Llamas as the emissary.

"I was never a student of Cuevas, so how can I be that emissary?" he said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said she doubted the veracity of a published report that a supposed Malacañang emissary approached Corona lead counsel Serafin Cuevas to convince the former Supreme Court associate justice to leave the defense panel in exchange for the dropping of charges against sacked NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula.

In a chance interview, De Lima pointed up the quick turn around of Cuevas that “nobody from Malacañang really approached him.”