It’s a crisis, not an election campaign, stupid!
FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
08/30/2010
It was pretty stupid of Malacañang to come up with that e-mail to Palace reporters bringing up, at this particular time, the killing of a Filipino tourist in Beijing by a crazed Chinese wielding a scythe.
That “anonymous” Palace message had one theme: The killing of Filipino tourists also happen in China, but the Chinese never apologized, while Noynoy Aquino did in the case of the dismissed policemen who held Chinese nationals hostages and killed eight of them.
Nobody says killings happen only in the Philippines because it happens everywhere in the world. What is at issue in this crisis under the Noynoy presidency is not only that it had botched the rescue operations of the Hong Kong Chinese tourists resulting in the senseless deaths of eight of them, but that the Aquino government had succeeded in making it an international issue, as well as a diplomatic crisis with China.
What then is behind the stupidity of Aquino’s Malacañang in comparing the two incidents and Noynoy apologizing for the botched rescue while, according to the Palace e-mail, the Chinese government did not?
But that incident in Beijing where a Filipino businessman was hacked to death, was contained easily, not making the news on global media. Neither the Philippine government nor the Chinese government allowed it to strain the relations because this was resolved through diplomacy. Neither, to my recollection, did the family of the slain Filipino make public demands for restitution. If it did, it was done privately, and resolved diplomatically. If there were apologies, the apologies may have been done on a private and government to government level.
Stated differently, the Beijing incident was resolved without any diplomatic and governmental gaffes.
Not so, in the case of Noynoy Aquino and his administrators. It was bad enough that they bungled the hostage crisis and displayed very weak leadership. It is worse now that they continue to bungle things up, in their investigation into the deaths of the Chinese tourists and the forensic examinations, straining the diplomatic ties more, and creating a public perception that the Noynoy government fears the involvement of the Hong Kong forensic experts, which in turn generates that perception of the Aquino government and its police force being into a cover-up and a whitewash.
Malacañang even now brings up the sovereignty issue, as it has stressed that the probe is to be handled by the RP government, and that the Hong Kong authorities are merely there to observe, even when the Chinese want an independent probe of its own too, for comparison.
Why bar the Hong Kong forensic experts from examining the physical evidence inside the bus? Simply because they did not get that clearance from the proper authorities?
But doesn’t this just show precisely how inept this government is?
Malacañang and its Justice Department and all agencies under it, should already have made all the arrangements and provided the clearances for the Hong Kong forensics experts prior to their arrival. Surely, if Noynoy and his “crisis management team” knew their onions, they would have ordered the proper arrangements and clearances. No foreigner on official visit to a country is expected to get his clearance himself to do his task. And where was that pledge of Noynoy to cut red tape? That was really red tape written all over.
If Noynoy and his government have nothing to hide over this incident, why even speak of an independent probe, especially when the government’s credibility is in serious question over its handling of the hostage crisis and the dumb “initial” findings of the police crime lab saying that with a degree of certainty, all the bullets from the hostage taker killed the hostages, on the basis of interviews done with the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team members — and no hostages’ interviews.
It’s time for Noynoy and his boys to get out of this election campaign mode where all they know is to attack their opponents. They are now the government, and they don’t even know how to govern or face a crisis squarely.
But that’s what happens when you get a know-nothing president with an equally know-nothing officials.
Dumb is the word.
It was pretty stupid of Malacañang to come up with that e-mail to Palace reporters bringing up, at this particular time, the killing of a Filipino tourist in Beijing by a crazed Chinese wielding a scythe.
That “anonymous” Palace message had one theme: The killing of Filipino tourists also happen in China, but the Chinese never apologized, while Noynoy Aquino did in the case of the dismissed policemen who held Chinese nationals hostages and killed eight of them.
Nobody says killings happen only in the Philippines because it happens everywhere in the world. What is at issue in this crisis under the Noynoy presidency is not only that it had botched the rescue operations of the Hong Kong Chinese tourists resulting in the senseless deaths of eight of them, but that the Aquino government had succeeded in making it an international issue, as well as a diplomatic crisis with China.
What then is behind the stupidity of Aquino’s Malacañang in comparing the two incidents and Noynoy apologizing for the botched rescue while, according to the Palace e-mail, the Chinese government did not?
But that incident in Beijing where a Filipino businessman was hacked to death, was contained easily, not making the news on global media. Neither the Philippine government nor the Chinese government allowed it to strain the relations because this was resolved through diplomacy. Neither, to my recollection, did the family of the slain Filipino make public demands for restitution. If it did, it was done privately, and resolved diplomatically. If there were apologies, the apologies may have been done on a private and government to government level.
Stated differently, the Beijing incident was resolved without any diplomatic and governmental gaffes.
Not so, in the case of Noynoy Aquino and his administrators. It was bad enough that they bungled the hostage crisis and displayed very weak leadership. It is worse now that they continue to bungle things up, in their investigation into the deaths of the Chinese tourists and the forensic examinations, straining the diplomatic ties more, and creating a public perception that the Noynoy government fears the involvement of the Hong Kong forensic experts, which in turn generates that perception of the Aquino government and its police force being into a cover-up and a whitewash.
Malacañang even now brings up the sovereignty issue, as it has stressed that the probe is to be handled by the RP government, and that the Hong Kong authorities are merely there to observe, even when the Chinese want an independent probe of its own too, for comparison.
Why bar the Hong Kong forensic experts from examining the physical evidence inside the bus? Simply because they did not get that clearance from the proper authorities?
But doesn’t this just show precisely how inept this government is?
Malacañang and its Justice Department and all agencies under it, should already have made all the arrangements and provided the clearances for the Hong Kong forensics experts prior to their arrival. Surely, if Noynoy and his “crisis management team” knew their onions, they would have ordered the proper arrangements and clearances. No foreigner on official visit to a country is expected to get his clearance himself to do his task. And where was that pledge of Noynoy to cut red tape? That was really red tape written all over.
If Noynoy and his government have nothing to hide over this incident, why even speak of an independent probe, especially when the government’s credibility is in serious question over its handling of the hostage crisis and the dumb “initial” findings of the police crime lab saying that with a degree of certainty, all the bullets from the hostage taker killed the hostages, on the basis of interviews done with the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team members — and no hostages’ interviews.
It’s time for Noynoy and his boys to get out of this election campaign mode where all they know is to attack their opponents. They are now the government, and they don’t even know how to govern or face a crisis squarely.
But that’s what happens when you get a know-nothing president with an equally know-nothing officials.
Dumb is the word.
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