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Mikey denies buying liquor while storm raged

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/30/2009 3:22 PM

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MANILA - After receiving flak for his alleged failure to declare in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) a $1.32 million or P63.7 million property in California, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo is now being criticized for online photos showing him buying liquor at the height of tropical storm Ondoy's wrath last Saturday.

The photo, which was posted on popular social networking site Facebook, had the caption: "Was buying food for keeps… then we saw Mikey Arroyo in Rustan’s Liquor Section asking the salesman for a brand of hard alcoholic drink. Effin crazy! Just a few kilometers away from Katipunan, people are needing help for search and rescue, and there he was buying bottles of alcohol. See for yourself and tell me what you think.”

The eldest son of President Arroyo, however, said it was impossible for him to stop by at Rustan's Supermarket-Katipunan since the street was rendered impassable by the floods on Saturday.

"My picture posted at Facebook with a caption saying I was busy shopping for wine at the height of Typhoon Ondoy is another malicious attack at my personality. It was so depressing," said Arroyo.

"How could I be at Rustan's in Katipunan Avenue at the height of Typhoon Ondoy when Katipunan Avenue was impassable at that time?" he asked.

Arroyo claimed that he was at Malacañang on Saturday with all members of his family helping mobilize rescue and relief operations for areas affected by the storm.

"It's so unfortunate that while we were so busy then trying to help ease the sufferings of our kababayan, some people had the guts and temerity to peddle malicious innuendoes at the expense of others," he added.

Arroyo suggested that instead of resorting to grandstanding gimmickry at his expense, bloggers should also busy themselves helping their countrymen."This is not the time to deal with people who are peddling half-truth and half-lies para lang sumikat."

While acknowledging that blogging is an exercise of freedom of expression, Arroyo said he believes it should still be regulated as it has become more susceptible to abuses by unscrupulous people.

Regulating Facebook 'Talibanic'

Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros, meanwhile, said Arroyo should push for tutorials on social networking for fellow solons instead of regulating Facebook.

“Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter became the recourse of the public to help each other when the government was unavailable or is too slow to respond to the crisis,” she said in a statement. “Without Facebook or Twitter, more lives would have been lost.”

“Regulating Facebook and Twitter is talibanic,” she stressed.

“In fact, young Filipinos are rediscovering the spirit of Bayanihan through Facebook and Twitter,” Hontiveros said. “So instead of pushing for the regulation of Facebook, he should take tutorials on social networking sites so that he himself could learn a thing or two about Bayanihan.”

Hontiveros praised netactivists and bloggers who have maximized the internet to support relief operations in disaster-stricken areas. “It is well within the rights of private citizens and online activists to check if public officials are doing their jobs, most especially when there are disasters. Rep. Arroyo should not be easily offended because he’s a public official, a presidential son at that,”  she said.

She said Arroyo might be required to take additional lessons other than the social networking tutorial.

“He might need to take extra classes on GMRC,” she said. “After all, if the story about him buying liquor while many are suffering were true, then people would really view it as the height of insensitivity. If it weren’t true, then he should just gracefully correct it. He shouldn’t be pikon, and more importantly, he should not haphazardly suggest that we should curb freedom of expression simply because he felt personally offended. Public officials should always be open to and patient with criticisms.” With Business Mirror