What peeves P-Noy

The five-man incident investigating review committee (IIRC) headed by Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila De Lima should ask for a video copy of yesterday’s press conference of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. The one-and-a-half hour long press conference of President Aquino held at Malacañang Palace yesterday noon would certainly enlighten the IIRC in its job.

Before she started the IIRC hearing last week, De Lima earlier did not rule out the possibility that they may ask the President to appear as resource person, if the need arises. Offhand, however, De Lima disclosed that the panel had more or less gotten already much information directly from the Chief Executive who told them what transpired at his level during the hostage crisis.

P-Noy gave the IIRC two to three weeks to complete its investigations into the incident. They started their probe last week and conducted five days of marathon hearing. They opened to the public their fact-finding inquiry and were, in fact, covered live by some radio networks and on cable TV ANC News Channel.  

The DOJ Secretary told reporters yesterday they could probably submit the IIRC report to the President next week either by Wednesday at the earliest, or Friday at the latest. Copies of the IIRC report would, in turn, be given to the government of China as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). 

P-Noy had specifically created the IIRC a day after the botched police rescue operations in the hostage taking of tourists from Hong Kong on board a bus that was commandeered to go to Luneta on Aug. 23. He tasked this ad hoc probe body to determine what went wrong and who should be held responsible for its tragic ending. Lasting for almost 11 hours, the hostage crisis ended in the death of eight of the 25 hostage victims and the hostage-taker also being killed by Manila SWAT team. 

At the start of the press conference yesterday, P-Noy revealed it was him who asked to have this live interview with selected news anchors of the three TV network giants at the Palace. P-Noy explained this is the best way he thinks to neutralize the continuing attacks of his detractors whom he said even went to town with talks that he was supposedly somewhere else at the height of the hostage crisis.

P-Noy’s press conference notably came after the IIRC wrapped up last Wednesday night its fact-finding job. The President squarely faced the questions thrown at him by the triumvirate of news anchors Mel Tiangco of GMA-7, Ted Failon of ABS-CBN Channel 2 and Paolo Bediones of TV 5. They asked long-winded questions and got long-winded answers too.

Actually, there was nothing new to the questions and answers that came out from that Palace press conference yesterday. Except, of course, P-Noy was able to elaborate more on his previous statements made during the past few days since this unfortunate incident happened. P-Noy filled in the blanks for some of the questions and issues raised specifically on his whereabouts and what he did while the hostage crisis was taking place.

To his credit, P-Noy exuded honesty and full transparency in his answers. He was, however, more cryptic when he talked about certain matters already delving into the realms of international relations. He was specifically careful not to stoke any more fire into this highly emotional issue for the Hong Kong people and not to preempt the IIRC before they could even submit their report to him.

P-Noy, though, deplored yesterday he came under fire from his critics for matters not based on truth but took advantage that certain events behind the scene were not previously known to the public. For one, he cited, he was being taken to task for not taking the long distance phone call from HKSAR chief Donald Tsang.

The President pointed out the HKSAR chief is the equivalent official of a provincial governor. Therefore, protocol dictates Tsang should go through channels followed by his own government that will go all the way to Chinese President Hu Jintao. After all, President Hu is the rightful equivalent official of P-Noy to talk to.  

Be that as it may, P-Noy cited Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Esteban Conejos who was directly coordinating already with the Chinese embassy in Manila as soon as the hostage victims were confirmed to be Hong Kong Chinese. Conejos was with the No. 2 official of the Chinese embassy right at the Quirino Grandstand monitoring the hostage crisis.

This was because Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jinchiao was in Beijing on his yearly vacation at that time. The ambassador arrived the next day and immediately proceeded to meet with P-Noy at the Palace. It was in this Palace meeting that both sides agreed to complete first the investigation by the IIRC before the official delegation of Vice President Jejomar Binay and DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo fly to Beijing to present the formal letter of apology by P-Noy addressed to President Hu.

P-Noy stressed anew he apologized immediately right after the bloody end of the hostage crisis and therefore new demands for public apology made by the Hong Kong legislators were rather out of line already.

The Chief Executive admitted he reached the point of being pikon or peeved not at his detractors but at people he trusted to deliver but failed to do what they promised to him. 

He, however, was obviously couching his words not to hurt the feelings of government and police officials being scored in the Luneta hostage fiasco. They include Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and his controversial appointees, Jessie Robredo and Rico E. Puno, Secretary and Undersecretary for police matters, respectively, at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Jesus Verzosa, Manila Police District chief Rodolfo Magtibay and NCRPO Director Leocadio Santiago.

If there is also a revelation at the Palace press conference yesterday, P-Noy showed his being well versed and knowledgeable about guns and bullets. A shooting expert, P-Noy knows very well what he is talking about bullet trajectory and “penetration.”

P-Noy insisted he is a “hands-on” President but not necessarily a “micro-manager.” For someone who is not into “grandstanding” or trying to win brownie points, P-Noy was simply being true to himself delegating jobs to people who are supposed to do them. After all, a good manager is one who does work through men.

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 In line with President Aquino’s recent directive, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued Memorandum Order No. 003-08-2010, “Reiterating Compliance by All Radio Broadcasting Stations with Executive Order 255, Series of 1987. “

The NTC Memo was issued on Aug. 15 directing all concerned to strictly implement EO 255 and reiterated the need for strict adherence to this long-standing presidential directive.

EO 255 was issued during the administration of P-Noy’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino. It required all radio stations with musical format programs to play a minimum of four original Pilipino musical (OPM) compositions. Following P-Noy’s instructions, the NTC also wrote the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) and GMA Network (GMA 7) repeating the need to adhere to the provisions of EO 255.

The NTC, as a reminder, furnished the KBP and GMA 7 copies of its Memo, along with the Implementing Guidelines as provided for under NTC Memorandum Circular No. 4-07-88 dated March 1988. 

For nationwide implementation, an office order was issued by the NTC Central Office to all its Regional Offices to continue monitoring compliance by all radio stations covered by EO 255 and to immediately report any radio station not complying with the directive.

A testament of P-Noy’s love for Filipino music is his forthcoming schedule to become godfather to the wedding of popular singer Ogie Alcasid — who is the current president of OPM, or Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit—to his long time fianceé, equally popular song bird Regine Velasquez.

The President personally takes time out during his weekends to buy OPM records whenever he goes to malls. For a Filipino music lover like P-Noy, it would be foolish for radio stations not to comply with this directive.