Damage control HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 09/01/2010

Damage control

HE SAYS

Aldrin Cardon

09/01/2010
A crying lady, kneeling behind yellow steel barriers placed to protect candles and flowers offered to appease the souls of the dead, all victims of the 8-23-10 hostage-taking tragedy, would have melted the strongest of hearts and possibly repaired strained relations between countries seared by bullets (not by war but by a possibly deranged former policeman) hadn’t she done it with a purpose other than just offering flowers and a prayer.

But the media cameras all around Krista Arietta Kleiner gave away her reasons, which included her safety (and possibly a winning chance) when she competes in the 50th Miss International, a beauty pageant to be held in Chengdu, China on Nov. 7, a good two months fresh after former Police Sr. Insp. Rolando Mendoza killed eight Hong Kong tourists

in front of historic Quirino Grandstand, damaging Philippine relations with Hong Kong, whose chief executive, Donald Tsang, did not hide his displeasure over the government’s mishandling of the crisis.

Television accounts placed marchers in Hong Kong at around 50,000, expressing their anger against the incident which proved to be the blackest blot yet in President Noynoy Aquino’s presidency, and some political analysts are now predicting there would be a sharp decline of about 15 percent in his popularity, a big wake up jolt that Noynoy would have to address now.

Initial reactions on the mishandling of the crisis somehow poked at Noynoy’s weakness in managing such a big emergency. Malacañang is now scrambling to repair the big damage caused by Mendoza’s stupidity, but if its actions could not convince its own people, how could it even convince the Hong Kong authorities and the many Chinese around the world..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100901com7.html