Why did PNoy conduct a "Harapan" with the media?

[Golden Thief Bug]

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yeah Leile De Lima has done a good job. i really like her. i think shes better to be president that abnot.

[trax]

para ma claro ug unsa gyud, mao to nag conduct ug media harapan

[FranZeno]

^^I don't see the harapan as something to clear things up, but as Noynoy's means of washing his hands from the kapalpakan.

[peewee_toot]

^^agree ko nimo. palpak jd cya... wala na cyay dapat klaruhon ky nakita na ang katag..

[bryan_walker]

agree ko sa kadaghanan dre.. palpak siya.. d angay pakpak... gud luck sa pinas..

[peewee_toot]

oust noy2x!

[remondo]

Method To Madness
The hostaged president

By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:05:00 09/11/2010
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropi ... -president

MANILA, Philippines—At midnight on Aug. 23, 2010, three hours after a 12-hour hostage crisis ended with the brutal deaths of eight foreign nationals, President Benigno Aquino III finally appeared before national television.

He condoled with the families of the dead, and the people of Hong Kong. Although he admitted the police needed to improve their skills, he justified the long drawn-out crisis by saying the hostage-taker did not seem to be belligerent. He said that the Quirino Grandstand was a difficult place for even the police to cover.

The blame was clearly on the media. He said that news coverage further agitated the hostage-taker. He said in other countries the police could have asked the media to refrain from shooting critical video. He said the media gave the police a hard time.

Asked by a reporter why he did not impose a news blackout, “If we ordered a news blackout, you’d accuse us of censoring you.”

There was no admission of any failure on the part of Malacañang. The President said his decision not to intervene allowed ground commanders to make decisions without being limited by his presence.

The storm of criticism came soon after—including indignation as to why the Philippine President was smiling while a weeping Hong Kong watched.

The President said he was smiling in frustration.

Two days later, on Aug. 25, Eduardo Lacierda, one of the President’s three spokesmen, again defended the administration’s position.

“Mere absence does not mean we did not give importance to the situation,” he said. “There were just matters that complicated the situation.”

On Aug. 31, early on Tuesday morning, Secretary Sonny Coloma, the second of the presidential spokesmen, announced that there was no failure in leadership.

“He was exercising his role as leader in the way he deemed fit, as mandated by the people.”

Coloma instead blamed the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, saying that Aquino had only been in position for 55 days when Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza held up a bus of Chinese nationals.

There were revelations. The head of the crisis team had gone off to eat at a restaurant at the height of the crisis. The second-in-command was drinking coffee at a bar. A phone call from the Hong Kong chief executive had not been returned. The wrong team had been sent in. Media had breached the boundaries. There is the possibility hostages had been killed by local fire. The PNP accidentally turned over the hostage-taker’s phone to the Hong Kong authorities in the aftermath. Bodies of victims were mishandled, and sent to Hong Kong in the wrong coffins. Presidential spokesmen made contradictory statements. Jesse Robredo, head of the Department of Interior and Local Government supposedly in charge of the Philippine National Police, was alternately appointed, defended, demoted and promoted, and was assigned to investigate the same PNP he was told he could not handle.

And so the President who had done no wrong, whose leadership had not failed, whose decisions were made at the mandate of the people, announced he was taking responsibility.

“At the end of the day, I am responsible for everything that has transpired.”

He went on to explain that he had trusted people he shouldn’t have trusted. He had assumed his orders would be followed. He had assumed there were media guidelines. He assumed that the situation would be resolved.

“In hindsight, perhaps I should have taken a more active role in that the belief that General Santiago would oversee [Manila Police District Chief Rodolfo] Magtibay properly and completely did not happen.”

He said he had many questions while the crisis was happening. Why did negotiator Yerba’s face change when Mendoza opened the Ombudsman’s letter? Why was Mendoza’s brother arrested? Why was the media allowed to shoot the arrest? Did they not think of the effect on Mendoza? Why was the assault team so slow? Who ordered the assault? Did they not consider Mendoza’s possible retaliation? Why the SWAT and not the SAF? He says he waits for answers.

The President has great faith in the skills of his people, and very little in his own, so much so that he will watch mistakes made and allow them to happen instead of making immediate decisions. This is the same President who announced he was willing to give 80 percent of his portfolio to his vice presidential candidate Mar Roxas, and is now the man willing to leave operations to a ground command team that was clearly making mistakes midway. “My patience ran out,” he said, and it was his reason for haring off to Emerald Restaurant to “monitor” the situation.

He is the popular ruler afraid of losing his popularity, and it showed on the ground with his failure to command a media blackout at risk of alienating an already erring media. He is not yet a president. He is a politician, currying votes and hunting for the acceptable consensus.

Today the son of heroes makes the noble stand. He takes responsibility, reacting, again reacting, without knowing what taking responsibility means. Does it mean the De Lima probe becomes irrelevant, because after all, how can commanders be held responsible when presidents take the fall? Does it mean heads will roll, especially the heads he has accused in his interview? Certainly it does not mean explaining that other countries have gotten their own hostages killed too, and certainly it does not include defending himself by saying he had once witnessed his mother’s PSG hostage training and assumed it would be the same. Neither does it mean the creation of random elite forces or grand broadcast blockbusters that bring in the poll numbers.

Now he says he should have been more active, and in the same breath defends his refusal to intervene. It is a useless admission of guilt for his inaction; one that should have come from the beginning. Now it is a grand, empty gesture, as grand and as empty as “I am sorry” was from a predecessor who now laughs in her sleeve.

The President spoke at the wake of former Olongapo City Mayor Teodoro on the 7th of September. In Filipino, he said that the tragedy would not last long, that Filipinos will get past it as an event to point the nation to the right direction. Eight men and women died, under his watch, in a bloody massacre that rocked the lives of families, whose effects will be felt by Filipinos in the decade to come. This is the true state of the nation of Benigno Aquino III.

“Our problems now, in two or three years, we can say that they are laughable when we recall that they were not that grave.”

[FranZeno]

^^That's what I call a blow by blow account of what he said that contradicts "what he said".

Which is worse? Gloria's "I am sorry" or Noynoy's "I am responsible" & "In 2-3yrs, we can say that they are laughable"?

[RMK711]

Maypa si Binay nalang, ang Pinoy Obama.. hahaha

[elvishtattoo]

^^That's what I call a blow by blow account of what he said that contradicts "what he said".

Which is worse? Gloria's "I am sorry" or Noynoy's "I am responsible" & "In 2-3yrs, we can say that they are laughable"?

ang kang GLoria, she said it once. never again.
kang Pnoy, he commented once. twice. three times. pataka pa jud. bukol nuon