InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA -- Where was President Benigno S. Aquino III on Sunday evening, as the people of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities and several other areas in Visayas and Mindanao grappled with the devastation of tropical storm Sendong? Apparently, partying with his security personnel in Malacanang, enjoying the jokes and performances of actresses.
This was according to a post on Twitter by actress Valerie Concepcion on Sunday, the same day the combined death toll in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan climbed to more than 600.
“Done w/ work.. Tnx for having me.. :) It was nice to see Pres. P-Noy laughing at my jokes & enjoying my performance..ü #Malacañang #PSGNight," Concepcion said in her tweet that has since been deleted as of posting time.
In her series of tweets, Concepcion said she was performing three songs for the President and was alongside singer Jessa Zaragosa, who was one of the performers.
InterAksyon.com called the Presidential Security Group early Monday and confirmed that the PSG Christmas party was indeed held in Malacanang Sunday night. But the PSG personnel, who refused to be identified, said he was "not authorized to say if the President" was there.
But the President's brief stay at the PSG Christmas party was also confirmed by Manuel Quezon III, undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, who had earlier tried to dismiss the allegations that Aquino was out partying with actresses in Malacanang instead of helping the victims of tropical storm Sendong in ÂMindanao. Aquino was at the party for only 30 minutes, he added.
Quezon also tried to justify the President's presence at the party as his way of being with those "who saved his life." "It couldn't be canceled (unlike the annual Cabinet Xmas Party scheduled for tonight, which was canceled yesterday afternoon, so funds could go to relief),” he said Monday on his Twitter account.
After several queries on Twitter, Quezon initially said that the PSG Christmas party was held last December 10, not December 18 as actress Valerie Concepcion revealed in her message on the microblogging site.
Later on, Quezon said he would confirm the rumors. Then on Monday, he corrected himself and said that the Dec. 10 event was the traditional PSG ball, while the Sunday night event was a "gathering including family (relatives had already flown in from provinces)."
Concepcion’s tweets have caught the ire of many Filipinos on the microblogging site who assailed the President for partying while Filipinos are suffering the brunt of Sendong.
“PNoy’s partying while people are dying,” said @I_amHolo.
Others commented on the president’s “misplaced” priorities. “Mr. PNoy, I hope you learn to prioritize things. People voted you to serve them, not to party. CDO is in plight. Deal with it,” tweeted Jan Brian Astrom.
Some, however, defended the President. Social activist and Manila maven Carlos Celdran, in a post on his Facebook wall, said he was "not going to make patol the Presidential Christmas partying and judge him. Seriously, I myself should be doing something better too. And if it's the PSG having their party & he 'passed by' to show solidarity, that's totally different from doing tequila body shots with Jessa Zaragoza. Seriously."
Whatever the context to the party and Aquino's presence, it was backdropped by public questions as to when the President intended to visit the provinces devastated by Sendong.
Earlier, the date of his trip to the South also caught the ire of some netizens, after the national disaster agency made a “typo” error and said he was visiting on December 27, raising howls of protest about why he had to wait after Christmas. The Palace corrected the date to December 20.
