Edvee Cruz: Sensible vs. Quirky

Intelligence reports on terrorist threats in the Philippines and a fresh round of negative travel advisories has got the Aquino Administration fumbling for the right answer among an array of what appears to them as right answers.

Edvee Cruz registers this opinion:

When friendly neighbors tell someone, "Hey, I've asked my family not to hang around your house first til we sort out the intelligence info we've gathered of a planned attack on your place." How would a sensible person react to that? Most likely, he would immediately inform of his own family pronto about the report and ask them to be on guard and also, instruct his security people to reconnoiter his home and investigate anything suspicious pertaining to the information given by his neighbors in case the reports prove to be accurate. He would not risk the possibility of harm being inflicted on his own family. And if he were courteous enough, he would thank his neighbors for sharing the information they had gathered. SENSIBLE.

Now, how would one with a quirky and somewhat skewed way of thinking respond to that? He might get pissed and tell his neighbors that they are being unfair in saying that and that they should continue to allow their families to be guests at his house and also inform them that he and his own security people (the laughing stock of the neighborhood due to a recent incident) have not heard of such a scenario and insist that what has been reported by his neighbors security intelligence people is pure balderdash. QUIRKY, PECULIAR, and rather BIZARRE.

And just as the online community seems to have had enough of Assistant Secretary Mai Mislang's whinery (she tweeted "wine sucks" at a banquet honoring President Aquino), it seems the APEC Summit in Japan will play host to what may be a new gaffe.

The Philippine Star reports that President Aquino intends to take up the issue of negative travel advisories against the Philippines at the APEC Summit.

President Aquino will take advantage of his upcoming trip to Yokohama, Japan for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit on Nov. 12 to 15 to persuade fellow heads of state to go slow on issuing travel warnings on the Philippines. 

 “We will be meeting with a lot of them for the APEC summit next week. I’ll probably course the dialogue with a lot of them as much as possible,” Mr. Aquino told Palace reporters at Malacañang’s Heroes Hall.

As far as I know, there is a lot of protocol that rules APEC and there are no chance meetings between Heads of State where matters of a crucial nature can be discussed productively.

I am not saying that President Noynoy Aquino won't be able to sidle up to the leader of France and say, "Bonjour, pouvez vous s'il vous plaît lever l'avis négatif à l'encontre Voyage aux Philippines. Ce n'est pas gentil."