Yeah I know, the title is a little bit misleading. Never mind the title after all, most of the statements of the President and malacanang are also misleading. Actually what happened was, most journalists unconciously killed President Gloria Arroyo, at least in their reportage. From newspapers, websites and even on national TV, journalists kept making unconcious and honest mistakes of mentioning her name in the report instead that of President Aquino who died last August 1. Maybe they want to kill the president so much (because justice is still elusive among their colleagues who are victims of extrajudicial killings) at the back of their mins that the unconscious surfaces in the most unguarded moments.

It was tweeted and posted on Facebook that during the coverage of the wake of Cory, TV Patrol Anchor Ted Failon mentioned President Arroyo’s name as the one who is in the casket: “Ang labi ng dating presidente Arroyo” or something to that effect.

GMA7 aso shared some booboos when they had a caption on their coverage. Instead of Ginang Aquino, they put “Ginang Arroyo”.  See the arrow. (Screencap courtesy of Spanky Enriquez)

While yesterday, on Manila Bulletin (August 6, 2009) on page 20, picture of the casket of President Cory was captioned as: “With Utmost care. Military Honor Guard carefully moves the coffin of President Arroyo out of the Manila Cathedral”. It should be “President Aquino” and not “Arroyo”. Facebook had a field day yesterday as one user posted the said erroneous photo from Manila Bulletin and hilarious comments by other users filled the account. Some even said “Wow pasok sa banga ang picture. pwede sa Wish Ko lang…”

Even yahoo also made a mistake on their report. (Screencap courtesy of Spanky Enriquez)

And as if the imaginary death of the incumbent president wasn’t enough to stir excitement, err curiosity of the people, CNN.Com also published an erroneous report saying that the remains of President Corazon Aquino was laid in the malacanang Palace. It is as if the website is suggesting that a wake is happening in Gloria’s temporary residence. As of yesterday when the screencap was taken, the website haven’t corrected the report yet. But yahoo Philippines immediately corrected the error. Manila Bulletin has no way to correct the printed caption instead, they could issue an Erratum.

I think President Arroyo should think twice with her moves from now on since the mainstream media is already suffering from subconscious suggestion, and worse, killing her in the news. But you know, the President should not worry since most of the victims of false news, particularly news of death live longer than expected. You know what they say, “bad weeds die hard”.

UPDATE: Here is the Palace reaction to the errors. From Inquirer.net

Palace finds no malice in photo caption error
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:15:00 08/07/2009

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political adviser believes that Manila Bulletin’s boo-boo in identifying the late former President Corazon Aquino’s coffin as that of Arroyo’s is an “honest mistake.”

Secretary Gabriel Claudio said he doubted that there was malice behind the photo caption that appeared on the back page of the paper’s main section last Thursday.

“Obviously a typo error. I can’t imagine any publication making a deliberate mistake like that,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m sure there’s no malice here.”

On Page 20 of the paper’s Thursday issue read the photo caption: “WITH UTMOST CARE. Military honor guard carefully moves the coffin of President Arroyo out of the Manila Cathedral.” The photo was part of a collage of photos on Aquino’s funeral last Wednesday.

On Friday, the paper published the photo again on Page 5 with the corrected caption: “FINAL RESPECTS (CORRECTED CAPTION). Military honor guards give the late President Corazon Aquino their final respects as her casket was brought out of the Manila Cathedral for her final resting place at the Manila Memorial Park.”

Claudio, who admitted that Arroyo never called his attention to it and only learned of it Friday, said there was no need to ask the paper’s editors to rectify or to issue an apology.

“It’s obviously a typo clerical error. I don’t see any need to make a story out of it,” he said.

Claudio said such mistakes were commonplace not only in newsrooms, but also inside Malacañang.

He recalled that then Executive Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr. introduced then President Fidel V. Ramos as “His Excellency President Ferdinand Marcos” in a function in Malacañang.

Anyhow, for all the reports’ worth, Condolence… LOL