by: Jerome Auza
January 29, 2015, the day when the 44 PNP-SAF casualties arrived at Villamor Air Base, President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino chose to attend the inauguration of an automotive factory instead of leading the arrival honors for the fallen police officers. This became the subject of criticisms against the president in social media.
Perhaps in an effort to save face, the Office of the President released a press statement saying that “Majority did not criticize Aquino’s absence at Villamor”. Unfortunately, at the same time the press release was done, the hashtag “#NasaanAngPangulo” was trending on Twitter both in the Philippines and worldwide. When a hashtag is trending, it means that it is what users of the social media site Twitter are talking about.
I don’t blame the President for the unfortunate event. But he is the Commander-in-Chief and the person who “green lighted” the covert operation to capture a dangerous terrorist. He should have exerted all efforts to be seen as being in solidarity with the men who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country, and perhaps the world, from terrorism. He should have been at the arrival honors and sent somebody else to the automotive factory.
The press statement that was a lie. Screen grab from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/668911/majority-did-not-criticize-aquinos-absence-at-villamor-says-palace
#NasaanAngPangulo shown trending in the country and worldwide. Screen grab from http://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/82359-nasaan-ang-pangulo-trends
Now, having made the blunder of being absent at the arrival honors ceremony, the President’s press writers should have not made any more excuses and blunders by publishing an obvious lie about the majority that did not criticize. Perhaps they had too little time to check Twitter of what was the sentiment of the public on social media. By doing so, the president instead appeared to be insensitive, callous or indifferent.
“Sa amin pong monitoring hindi naman yan majority view (Based on our monitoring, that is not the majority view),” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said. Of course, he did not mention what majority he was talking about. Maybe it was just majority of the friends of the president that did not criticize him. But the public was hash tagging with might #NasaanAngPangulo. Isn’t that criticism? In my opinion, that statement was a blatant lie. How could they possibly get the opinion of the “majority” in a few hours but miss the trending topics on Twitter?
In this age of social media and the Internet, public officials can be caught lying by the public so they should perhaps avoid lying at all. Or even better, make better decisions and prioritize national interest like honoring fallen heroes over other functions. I’m sure the automotive factory executives would fully understand if the president had cancelled his appointment with them.
That way, the president’s men do not have to tell a lie to try to save face.
