Manila, Philippines  – The administration of Philippine President NoyNoy Aquino continues to go on the defensive as more and more people have criticized the government’s zero financial support for Filipino figure skater Michael Christian Martinez. The lone Filipino athlete in the Sochi Winter Olympics made an impressive Olympic debut last week, finishing 19th out of 24 skaters. He is the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to qualify for the Olympic figure skating competition.

Martinez’s mother said that she had sent Malacañang, the Philippine Presidential Palace, a request for help to finance her son’s participation in the Olympics but never received a response. 

Today, presidential spokesperson Herminio Coloma said that the request “may have come into Malacañang as ‘spam,’  and that per our policy, we do not open spams. We receive hundreds and hundreds of  requests, gifts and what have you, including imported cans of SPAM, but for security reasons we never open canned goods or other wrapped gifts.”