ON TARGET
Wrong place, wrong time
By Ramon TulfoPhilippine Daily Inquirer
One week after that incident at a Korean restaurant involving its top diplomat, the US Embassy has not made any official comment except to tweet.
A tweet is a communication in a social networking site on the Internet.
For those who didn’t read this space last Saturday, Princess Cordova, 22, was about to enter Kaya, a Korean restaurant in Makati City, on Jan. 6, Friday, when she was nearly bumped by Dean I. Chang’s car.
The Korean-American Chang, the US Embassy’s second secretary, was going to the same restaurant with his wife.
Instead of apologizing to Cordova, Chang shouted at the shocked woman after he and his wife got out of the car.
“You’re a bitch, you’re a bitch,” Chang shouted at Princess, a student of Miriam College.
Inside the restaurant where his uncle Dindo Danao was waiting, Cordova told him about the incident outside.
Danao said that she probably was at fault and that she should go to Chang’s table and apologize.
Cordova did, even though she knew she was not at fault, and this only got Chang angrier.
After calling the young girl “bitch” for the second time in front of other customers, Chang said, “Next time I’ll run over you if you get in my way!”
When Danao, an advertising executive, protested the American diplomat’s rudeness, Chang challenged him to a fight.
“You wanna square off with me?” the Korean-American told Danao.
Asked to comment on the incident, Tina Malone, US Embassy spokesperson, referred this columnist to the embassy Twitter account.
“This incident was resolved on Friday, January 6th, and it’s unfortunate that media reports about the incident have been neither accurate nor kind. We work every day to build our friendship with the Philippines,” said the tweet.
* * *
Why did the US Embassy say the incident had been resolved when Chang never apologized to the young woman?
He left in a huff after a Caucasian American, apparently a fellow diplomat, came to his rescue.
Chang was even arrogant to Makati cops who responded to a call from Danao.
And what made the US Embassy say media reports about the incident were “neither accurate nor kind?”
Did it conduct an investigation into the incident?
I can say without batting an eyelash that Chang was arrogant because I saw how he answered questions from the police.
Although I arrived minutes after Chang cussed Cordova, I can say that based on his behavior, what the young woman and her uncle said about him was true.
I asked the restaurant’s security guard what happened and he told me exactly what Cordova and her uncle told the media about Chang’s rudeness.
Chang can thank his lucky stars the police and media arrived on time.
Onlookers, bystanders and cab drivers, who were at the scene, said that had Danao started the fight, they would have ganged up on Chang because they thought he was a Korean.
Koreans are not popular among Filipinos.
In short, Chang would have been a goner had Danao taken up his challenge to a fight.
* * *
I find no reason for Chang to cuss a young woman who didn’t do him any harm.
But I can guess why: He probably had a quarrel with his wife. Chang must have taken it out on Cordova who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
More from this Column:
- It’s our fault foreigners don’t respect us
- Gabriela: All sound and fury
- Credibility is my only asset
- How I raised the Tulfo brothers
- Thank you for video, dear friend
Recent Stories:
Tags: Dean I. Chang , Diplomacy , US Embassy
