A subordinate of Secretary Ricky Carandang who was among the 52-man Philippine delegation here has expressed her distaste - although over social networking site Tweeter - of the wine offered by the host while President Aquino was having a toast with his Vietnamese counterpart. Assistant Secretary Mai Mislang, who is from the office of the Presidential Communications Office for Strategic Planning and Development, sent a "(the) wine sucks" message as Mr. Aquino was the guest of Nguyen Minh Triet at the Banquet Hall of the Government Guesthouse late Tuesday.
Mr. Aquino was on a state visit here from Tuesday to Wednesday, upon the invitation of the Vietnamese leader, who is chairman of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whom he first met last September in New York at the UN General Assembly.
The Chief Executive was apparently unaware of the Tweeter exchange Mislang and Carandang - who acted as his spokesman in the state visit and ASEAN *****eral meetings here - have been doing, much less the offensive remarks, especially since the Philippine government is just a visitor in this city.
Carandang, who was anchor of giant TV network ABS-CBN before joining government, have in turn showed his picture with Trade Secretary Greg Domingo and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima dining at Lotus restaurant, which may be a relatively harmless one.
But Mislang, who was Mr. Aquino's staff during his three-year stint at the Senate, even commented that Vietnamese people, particularly the lean male ones, do not have good looks that could attract women. She also said that if you want to die, just cross the busy streets here.
Mr. Aquino, Carandang and Mislang are all billeted at the Grand Plaza Hotel here, where they will be staying until Oct. 31 (Sunday), until after the 17th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits are concluded afternoon.
Sought for his comment after Mr. Aquino’s talks with fellow ASEAN heads of state, Carandang downplayed the booboo and defended his underling.
“Mai is one of the hardest working people in our office she is trusted by the President and this is just a minor issue. So, I don’t think it’s going to become anything more. As far as we are concerned tapos na iyun, it’s a closed book,” he told Manila-based reporters at the National Convention Center here.
Nonetheless, he said he already reminded Mislang about the repercussions of her actions. “I told her that she should restrain herself next time.
Wala na iyun and she’s being more careful now.
Siyempre ma-e-excite ka kasi this is her first state visit.”
Mislang was among the 56-man Philippine delegation to Mr. Aquino’s US working visit last month.
When asked if Mr. Aquino had been apprised of the offending remarks, Carandang replied: “The President knows about it and he knows that I have taken the appropriate action. I just told him that I have talked to her already.”
The message on Tweeter had already been deleted, an act Carandang said Mislang did on her own.
Initially, the cabinet member, himself a techie, found nothing wrong with Mislang’s message. “I think it was a pretty harmless Tweet. I think obviously it might be potentially embarrassing. As long as people are careful about it in the future, I dont think it will create any kind of incident.”
“No offense meant to anybody. It was something that was spontaneous. We talked about it and we’re all being careful now about tweeting. We have already fixed it,
tapos na iyan. It’s been a closed book already,” Carandang said.
Techie Palace aide tweets 'wine sucks' as P-Noy toasts with Vietnam leader
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