PNoy insulted by question about video games

President Benigno Aquino III was slighted Wednesday when asked to confirm reports that he was playing video games during the height of the hostage crisis in Manila last year that left nine people, eight of them foreign tourists, dead. “I’m also human. I feel kind of insulted when I’m asked to disprove a non-event. And I think any of us given the same situation would also feel [that way]," he told members of the Foreign Correspondents of the Philippines at a forum in Makati. He said there is no basis to the allegation and many people could prove that he was busy giving instructions and talking to people during that time. “I think all you have to do is look at the calendar of activities that happened in Malacañang that particular day," he told those present at the forum. “You can interview people like ex-Director General [Jesus] Verzosa of the PNP (Philippine National Police) and ask him what time I called him up. You had a whole plethora of people subscribing to their oath of office that I was officiating." “I think you will be able to get every minute of that day accounted for. And, of course, I didn’t prepare that [day] thinking that there would be a disastrous hostage situation in Rizal Park. So if you just do a little checking, you will see that there is no basis for such an allegation," he added. The Aquino administration, then just a few months old, received flak for allegedly mishandling the hostage crisis on Aug. 23, 2010 where eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed. The hostage-taker, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, was also killed by responding policemen. Also during the forum, Aquino, the country’s first ever bachelor president, said his love life is not his priority “at this point in time." — Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News