IIRC Report: Who SHould Read It First?

Again, the Philippine nation reacts when President Aquino first released the IIRC report regarding the hostage taking that took the lives of at least 8 Chinese nationals. Some Congressmen alleged it is a betrayal to the Filipino people and an insult to the public trust that the people gives to the government for the President to submit the said report first to the Chinese authorities before it makes the said report public to the Philippines.

For a President who is trying his best to regain the trust and confidence of the world to his bruised administration, it is understandable for him to decide giving the report to the Chinese authorities first before releasing it to the public on grounds that doing the contrary there is a risk for wrong information to leak through the media that may cause miscommunication between the Philippines and China/Hong Kong. Besides, the said report was handed to the Chinese authorities in the morning and sometime in the evening of the same day, the report was published on the government website. Now, what is a mere difference of few hours that the said report become published in the Philippines? The filipino people were not deprived at all to know the content of the report. Was there betrayal of public trust?

To be quite frank, I did not vote for P-Noy but I am defending the Philippine government because I have seen the Filipinos acting like brats and egoistic people. The freedom of expession has been abused too much. We have the best human rights law, the best Constitution that upholds social justice and is pro-people and pro-Filipino but all we can hear from the media and the public are criticisms instead of giving support to the government to help it stand on its feet to build a better nation. As one of the CNN correspondents said, the Philippines has the best media group, with intellectual reporters. But this must be coupled with responsible reporting.

Back to the IIRC report, as a Filipino I do not feel insulted at all for such decision of the President. He is in fact trying to save the face of the Filipinos from complete humiliation it experienced worldwide because of the flaws and negligence of the authorities to resolve the tragic and fatal hostage incident. How long shall we continue to linger blaming those at fault? I guess the main issue is how to help the country regain its prestige after being humble enough to accept the flaws of its government. And the initial step would be to give due respect to the injured country by giving said report first.

On a closing note, I appreciate how the Department of Justice made a thorough investigation and not giving in to media pressure and whine of the Filipino people. It does not actually make them less pro-Filipino by their decisions. It is only showing that the government is taking responsibility to give justice to those at fault for failure to handle the hostage crisis and at the same time making some reparation to the damage done between two allied nations.