No Palace ban on Twitter, Facebook despite aide's gaffe

Despite the near backlash caused by a Palace aide’s allegedly rude tweet during President Benigno Aquino III’s trip to Vietnam, Malacañang has not banned its officials from using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte on Sunday said the tweet by Carmen “Mai" Mislang, President Aquino's speechwriter, will be analyzed in the Palace’s post-mortem of the Vietnam trip. “Walang sinasabi si Pangulo na huwag kami mag-Twitter o Facebook. Alam natin social networking sites, ginagamit sa feedback mechanism ... it allows people to give us their views on certain matters," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. (The President has not given any instruction for us to stop using Twitter or Facebook. Besides, we use social networking sites as a mechanism to get feedback from the public. These sites allow people to give us their views on certain matters.)

She said that had there been such a presidential directive, she would have been among the first to be informed since she maintains social networking accounts. On the other hand, she said Mislang’s gaffe will likely be taken up at the analysis of the Vietnam trip. “Everything would be taken into consideration (in the) post-mortem," she said, citing a saying that public officials “should be circumspect" in their actions and statements. During President Aquino’s state visit to Vietnam, Mislang sent a message on her Twitter account claiming that the wine in Vietnam "sucks." While she eventually apologized and deactivated the Twitter account she used to send the message, criticisms continued to mount, with many saying the Aquino government is risking making new enemies with the message. - KBK, GMANews.TV