‘Trial balloons’ floated thru spokespersons

There is shrewdness, bordering on deception, in the practice of politicians letting their spokespersons do the talking for them.

Case in point is Vice President Jejomar Binay’s spokesperson: Rep. Toby Tiangco raised the issue of Grace Poe being disqualified to run for high office for failing to meet the residency requirement.

We see this as a mere trial balloon: feeling the public pulse on some delicate issue.

But sensing that the public sympathy swung in favor of Grace Poe, Binay, through his daughter Abigail, disowned Tiangco’s statement, claiming that it was all the latter’s decision to raise such sensitive issue, and that the Vice President had no hand in it.

Such contrived turnaround unmistakably went pfft.

If it is true that the Vice President never consented to Tiangco raising that residency issue, Binay could have nipped the issue in the bud, so to speak, instead of allowing a lengthy public discussion on the matter for days.

This pattern does not bode well for us.

—BENJIE GUERRERO, Business Center, Sulo Riviera, Diliman, Quezon City