Messengers, not
the message,
face rough sailing
PRESIDENT Aquino signed Wednesday night the executive order creating the Communications Group.
Herminio Coloma, secretary for information dissemination and a member of the Communications Group (ComGroup), confirmed the signing of the still unnumbered executive order.
Malacañang has yet to release a copy of the EO because the Palace wants the creation of the Truth Commission to be EO No. 1.
Under the ComGroup set up, Coloma will handle information dissemination and all the agencies under the Office of the Press Secretary.
Former ANC news anchor Ricky Carandang will be the secretary for messaging and will be supervising the websites and social networking accounts of the Palace.
Manuel Quezon III will be Carandang’s undersecretary and will handle the Official Gazette. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda also has Cabinet rank but will be under the Office of the President.
Coloma said there will still be a press secretary but "in name only."
Coloma said both he and Carandang will be subjected to confirmation proceedings by the Commission on Appointments and they will defend their own budgets for 2011 before Congress. He expressed confidence they will hurdle the CA.
Coloma said he will rationalize the use of the state-owned Radyo ng Bayan stations to maximize their resources.
He said he will study who among the contractual and casual employees of the OPS will be retained.
Memorandum Circular No. 1 extended the tenure of contractual and casual employees up to July 31.
Coloma said it is up to the agency heads to decide whether to retain the services of the temporary workers beyond the end of this month.
Sen. Loren Legarda said Carandang would be grilled in the CA on his role during the last May elections.
Legarda said her question to Carandang would be: "Were you part of the Liberal Party campaign (during the last elections)?"
Carandang was covering the campaign for ABS-CBN.
After Aquino’s proclamation, Carandang resigned from the network amid rumors that he was being eyed to be included in the Aquino Cabinet.
"You can see the independence of journalists or practitioners because you can’t be an anchor and journalist by PR-ring at the same time for a candidate. That means both of your stories were colored," Legarda told reporters.
She said she would not be "soft" on anyone just because the President appealed to CA members to be easy on his appointees.
Legarda also questioned the government’s seeming priority on "messaging" over governance with the creation of the new ComGroup.
"I am a communicator, it’s important to have the right message but we should go beyond creating the right message and really make sure that the hungry people are fed," she said.
Legarda also hit the Palace directive for each department to appoint a spokesman who will work with the ComGroup.
"Too many cooks spoil the broth. But let’s see if they will limit themselves to their departments. My question is will they cull these spokesmen from existing plantilla positions or create new ones?" she said. – With JP Lopez
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