No more smiling P-Noy on Facebook

MANILA, Philippines – Aides of President Aquino removed yesterday his smiling photograph from the chief executive’s official Facebook page that had offended the families of the victims of the Aug. 23 hostage crisis that resulted in the death of eight Hong Kong tourists in Manila.

The new photo of a serious President replaced the controversial Facebook photo apparently to pacify Hong Kong and Chinese critics who condemned the mishandling of the hostage crisis and the bungled rescue attempt by Manila policemen.

The Manila police chief went on leave while five other police officers were relieved because of their lapses during the assault on the tourist bus where dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza held the Hong Kong tourists hostage.

Mendoza, who was dismissed from the police force last year for extortion, commandeered last Monday a Hong Thai Travel tourist bus in Intramuros and held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipino guides for several hours in front of the Quirino Grandstand at Rizal Park in Manila.

The suspect, armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol, had released several hostages before the SWAT team assaulted the bus resulting in the death of the hostage taker and eight tourists.

Police hostage negotiators said Mendoza turned violent due to frustration after failing to get his demand to be reinstated to the police force.

Shortly after the hostage crisis, the Facebook page of Mr. Aquino was swamped with negative comments from both Filipinos and foreigners who had seen on live television how incompetently the policemen handled the negotiations with the hostage taker.

Over the weekend, Secretary for Operations Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Office disclosed that the hate mail had lessened.

Two days after the hostage-taking incident, the President himself apologized on national television after some critics said his facial expression on his Facebook page was insensitive, even if unintentional.

“I have several expressions. I smile when I’m happy, I smile when I’m faced with a very difficult situation, and if I offended certain people, I apologize to them,” he declared in a hastily called press conference.

Coloma said comments on Aquino’s Facebook page are slowly going back to normal after being swamped with criticisms in connection with his smile and the death of the Hong Kong tourists.

He said there are still a few stinging remarks left in the Facebook account but there are more comments now supporting and defending the President.

He said they are not deleting all the negative remarks, but only the slanderous and “profane” comments.

Coloma said everyone is starting to move on and get on with life after the hostage incident, and the government is doing its best to improve the capabilities of its security forces while investigations on the incident continue.

He said they expect a fact-finding report on the incident to be submitted to the President in three weeks.

The Palace would welcome an early completion of the investigation report but they want to make sure that the probe would be “thorough, impartial and comprehensive.”

“What we are doing now is improving our police force based on the weaknesses we saw during the hostage situation. We will now exert efforts to form this elite strike force that our President has mentioned,” he said.

President Aquino said he had accepted the fact that he would not be given a break by the media and the public even if he is just starting in his job as the country’s chief executive.

“I never had a honeymoon, I think I can show you all of the columns that have been hitting me before I was even proclaimed, so that is to be expected, it comes with the turf,” Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview at the Palace.

“But I am sure a lot of them, especially those who have decided to be critics regardless of the circumstances and facts, once they know of the facts they will be hard pressed to come up with their next criticism,” he said.

Mr. Aquino is under fire for the supposed mishandling of the hostage-taking incident.

Coloma said there was no failure of leadership despite the bloody outcome.

“Hindsight is the clearest of all visions… In our opinion, there is no failure of leadership. The President was in his office. He was exercising his role as a leader in the way he deemed fit, he is exercising the mandate that the people had given him,” Coloma said on television. – With Aurea Calica