MANILA, Philippines -- A close aide of President Corazon Aquino 'shot the finger' at protesters and said 'it is better to have bad manners than fraudulent intentions,' newspaper reports said today.
The Manila Chronicle published on its front-page today a photograph showing presidential speech writer Teodoro Locsin Jr. making the gesture Tuesday outside the office of the San Miguel Corp., which manufactures beer.
Several thousand San Miguel employees were picketing outside the building at the time to protest alleged moves by Aquino's good government commission to take over management of one of the Philippines' largest companies. They booed Locsin.
Columnist Ramon Tulfo, writing in the widely circulated Philippine Daily Inquirer, slammed Locsin for 'acting like a boy' and asked where he'got his manners -- from Harvard or Malacanang (the presidential palace).'
'Is it good manners to insult, beat the car and jeer the representatives of the Aquino government, which happens to own the controlling bloc of SMC? I gave the dirty finger. I gave as good as I got,' said Locsin, 36, a Harvard-educated lawyer and one of Aquino's directors in the San Miguel board.
The government has acquired majority of the San Miguel stocks after it sequestered 33 million shares owned by Eduardo Cojuangco, an estranged Aquino cousin and close associate of ousted ruler Ferdinand Marcos.
The good government commission has been tasked to recover wealth allegedly plundered by Marcos and his associates in 20 years in power.
Locsin charged the protests by San Miguel employees were orchestrated by San Miguel Chairman and President Andres Soriano III, who is battling to keep his position when the stockholders meet May 14.
'It is better to have bad manners than fradulent intentions,' said Locsin in a statement, referring to Soriano's purchase of Cojuangco's 33 million shares using San Miguel funds.
The 14-month-old Aquino government is contesting the legality of the sale.
