When silence is a virtue, even for a spokesman...

This comes from Raisa Roble's blog:

Ricky Carandang, who heads the Presidential Communications Group, said Aquino was not aware of the first call because he was in a meeting and because the call came in through the palace’s main phone line with no prior notice. Carandang said the caller was an aide of Tsang, and an aide of Aquino answered the phone. He said Aquino’s aide knew who Tsang was, but was unsure it was really from his office.

The palace contacted the Foreign Affairs Department to set up a phone call through Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, in what would be diplomatic protocol. Presidential spokesman Ed Lacierda said he phoned Romulo’s spokesman Ed Malaya to convey the request to arrange a conversation between Tsang and Aquino. No word came back, so Lacierda tried to phone Malaya again three times but could not reach him. The department declined to tell the Post why no one returned Tsang’s calls that night.

This is from the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

"Di kapanipaniwala yan ’dahil accessible siya sa lahat ng oras [That is unbelievable because the President is accessible all the time],'' Secretary Herminio Coloma, head of the Presidential Communications and Operations Office, told ABS-CBN's program "Umagang Kay Ganda''.

Coloma was reacting to Tsang's reported frantic phone calls to Mr. Aquino last Monday and his complaint that he could not reach the Philippine leader.

“If [Tsang] called the office of the President, his call will be received. Even if the President left the Palace for a short while, he could still be reached because his mobile phones are with his aides,'' Coloma said.

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang indicated on Thursday that the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was also to blame for the bloody end of Monday’s hostage-taking drama at Rizal Park in Manila.

"I would like to point out that the administration of Benigno Aquino III is just 55 days old while Arroyo's administration lasted for nine years. We just inherited the state of the Philippine National Police,'' Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Palace communications and operations office told the ABS-CBN morning news program "Umagang Kay Ganda.''

"The previous administration should also answer for what they did [for the police]. Did they provide enough funds for the modernization of the PNP or did it waste funds for cases like the euro-generals and other corruption cases?'' Coloma also said.