President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III will not fire one of his trusted aides, Assistant Secretary Mai Mislang, for the controversial tweets she made during his visit to Vietnam where she was part of the official delegation. Aquino said he was convinced that Mislang has realized the implications of the snide comments she made on her Twitter account, such as:
the wine served during the state banquet "sucks;" there were no handsome men in Vietnam, and an easy way to die was to cross the streets of Vietnam where motorcycles abound. "Ipinaliwanag niya sa isang sulat at pinaalala ko lang sa kanya, well, bata si Mai baka yung akala niyang gawain na simple ay hindi niya narealize ang implications. I'm more or less convinced that she realizes what was done," said Aquino in an ambush interview upon his return to Manila Sunday night. (She explained to me in a letter and I reminder her, well, she's young and perhaps she didn't realize that her simple acts had implications.) The president noted that Mislang has already taken down her Twitter account. "Upon realization, she had tried to correct what she did wrong," he said. After the state banquet hosted by Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet in honor of Aquino during his state visit, Mislang was said to have tweeted: “The wine sucks." She allegedly also posted this on her Twitter account: “Crossing the speedy motorcycle laden streets of Hanoi is one of the easiest ways to die." She reportedly also tweeted: “Sorry pero walang pogi dito #vietnam." (Sorry, there are no handsome men here #vietnam.) A leftist group, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), has urged Aquino to fire Mislang over her tweets, which the groups described as "arrogant, insensitive and disrespectful of other people." Various commenters on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook also criticized Mislang's tweets. However, Aquino said the incident was "blown out of proportion," pointing out that the Vietnamese government did not say anything about Mislang's tweets. Mislang, who was part of Aquino's staff even during his Senate days, is his speech writer. She is working for the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning (PCDSP) office. PCDSP head Ricky Carandang, who himself has a Twitter account, said he has told officials under him not to tweet "for the next couple of days" until he has figured out the guidelines for using social media. "I don't want them tweeting for now until I figure out what the rules are," he said in an ambush interview, also on Sunday night. Carandang, a former broadcaster, said there were social media guidelines in his former profession. He said "stricter guidelines" are needed for the government. Carandang said Mislang has been reprimanded for her actions. "It's a mistake, it's over-exuberance, I got mad at her, I reprimanded her," he said. Like Aquino, however, he said the incident was given undue attention, pointing out that Philippine Ambassador to Vietnam Jerril Santos told him that the Vietnamese government did not mention the tweets. "It's only an issue here among certain people. The Vietnamese didn't even bring it up. It was not an issue," said Carandang. Mislang has posted an apology for her actions on her Facebook wall, according to PCDSP Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III. "I apologize for my comments. If I offended anybody, please know that was never the intention. I feel extremely blessed to be in a beautiful country blessed with warm hospitable people," Mislang was quoted as saying on her Facebook page. Since it took over in June, the Aquino administration has been actively using the Internet for information gathering and dissemination, with various agencies putting up new websites or Twitter and Facebook accounts. "We've always encouraged people in the office to actively use social networking. And now I think maybe now we need to make sure that there are more firm guidelines," Carandang said. "We try to strike a balance in our social media operations. It's supposed to be less formal, less official. But obviously it went too far in some cases so we have to be able to, if they can't make the judgment themselves, we have to make the judgment for them," he added. Aquino was in Vietnam for a two-day state visit from October 26 to 27. He also attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit on October 28 to 30. His Vietnam trip was his second foreign trip as chief executive, the first being his week-long working visit to the United States in September. –VVP, GMANews.TV 
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