ONLY Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella will speak for the Palace, after Communications Secretary Martin Andanar was told to steer clear of the media as a result of an internal reorganization within President Rodrigo Duterte’s communications group.
In a department order issued Feb. 27, Andanar said he would focus on overseeing the running of the Presidential Communications Operations Office while only Abella would speak on behalf of the Palace.
“PCOO had an internal reorganization, and content and messaging have been assigned to me. Secretary Martin [Andanar] takes care of departmental affairs,” Abella told reporters.
The reorganization comes after a series of gaffes by Andanar, the latest of which he said reporters were offered $1,000 to attend a press conference in which President Duterte was accused of leading the Davao Death Squad when he was mayor.
Andanar said he would still “speak from time to time” if Abella is not around.
Andanar said his group would soon be replaced by the Office of the Press Secretary.
“On the desk of the President right now is the executive order reverting back to the Office of the Press Secretary. Let’s wait for that to be signed then we can officially release that,” he said.
At a dinner hosted by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senate reporters gave Andanar the cold shoulder amid Pimentel’s efforts to patch things up between both sides.
“This is my effort of establishing good relations between the secretary and the Senate media,” Pimentel added.
While some tried to be cordial and civil to him, others just stayed for an interview with Pimentel and immediately left after it was done.
Andanar, who earlier said that “people read only the headlines and not stories itself,” found himself in the middle of one communications gaffe after another.
The Communications secretary earlier accused the media of misreporting Duterte’s remarks on when he would declare martial law, calling it “the height of journalistic irresponsibility.”
The Malacañang Press Corps fired back at Andanar, telling him to read the entire news story and understand its context.
Andanar then contradicted President Duterte, who vowed to help survivors of the Surigao earthquake with P2 billion in financial assistance. No such fund existed, Andanar said the next day, only to be corrected the following day.
Andanar offered no apology for his allegations of bribery, saying he did not claim that they took the money. He said he got his information from an intelligence report.
In less than 100 days into Duterte’s presidency, the Communications group had committed numerous blunders, from the miscommunication on the coverage of the President’s declaration of a state of lawless violence to the premature—and erroneous—announcement on the seating arrangements at the Asean Summit gala dinner.