Tweeting suspended among Palace executives

MANILA, Philippines - The woman at the heart of a controversy over a message sent by Twitter has been reprimanded, and tweeting has been suspended among certain Palace officials.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said he has reprimanded Assistant Secretary Maria Carmen Mislang and that all accounts of officials on social networking sites would Malacañang said yesterday have to be suspended until guidelines are drawn up on their use.

Carandang is the immediate superior of Mislang, who drew flak for expressing in her Tweeter account her distaste for the wine that was offered by the host while President Aquino was having a toast with his Vietnamese counterpart during the latter’s recent state visit.

Mr. Aquino expressed the belief that Mislang had learned her lesson well and that the issue should no longer be blown out of proportion.

“I’m more or less convinced that she realized what was done. Of course it was also blown out of proportion. She has closed her Twitter account, among other things. Upon realization, she had tried to correct what she did wrong,” he said shortly after his arrival from Vietnam Sunday night, where he attended a state visit and joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit and related meetings.

Mr. Aquino said Mislang had written him to explain, and apologize for, her actions even as the Vietnamese government did not make an issue of it at all.

He said there was no need to apologize because aside from the fact that it was not raised during their stay there, the Vietnamese government was not subject of Mislang’s tweets and that it was quite obvious that it was at the local scene where the issue was being fanned.

Aquino said Mislang’s comments were personal but members of the delegation for the next trips must be briefed accordingly.

Carandang said Philippine officials “took the cue” from Vietnamese officials on Mislang’s case.

But he said officials must “be more careful now” and circumspect in their statements.

“She knows she’s wrong, she has to apologize, she’s been reprimanded. I think that will resolve it. The Vietnamese government has not brought it up or mentioned it so I think it’s a closed book now,” Carandang said.

He said they were still thinking about possible sanctions but right now, “it has resulted in a change in the entire guidelines for social networking.”

“We’ve always encouraged people in the office to actively use social networking. And now I think maybe we need to make sure that there are more firm guidelines. 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 said.

Carandang added he has not formally reviewed the possible guidelines and has told his staff that he “doesn’t want anyone tweeting for the next couple of days while he figures out what to do.”