AGRICULTURE Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Monday slammed the “slow and poor” media operations of Malacañang even as President Rodrigo Duterte gained international recognition after being named as TIME 100 reader’s online poll winner.
Interviewed at the sidelines of the Senate hearing on free irrigation and the allocation of LGU funds for agriculture, Piñol said that, as a former newsman, he was witnessing the poor handling of Malacañang media operations.
“I frankly see that. Their operation is poor, they are being left behind in releasing stories, and independent media entities even come ahead of them,” Piñol said.
He said he had already taken up the problem with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.
But he said he believed Malacañang’s media operations would hardly affect Duterte because “the guy doesn’t care.”
He brushed aside claims that Malacañang ran a media campaign when Time magazine launched its online poll for the Time 100.
“What I’m saying is there was no such operation because the basis of that statement is the fact that they cannot even organize very well the media operations of Malacañang,” Piñol said.
“How much more a contest or popularity contest that has nothing to do with governance in the Philippines?”
Duterte bested Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis, billionaire Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in its online poll. The poll was posted on March 24 and asked “Who should be on the 2017 TIME 100?”
TIME 100 is an annual list of the world’s most influential people who are selected by the magazine’s editors. TIME will reveal its list on April 20.
Piñol said Duterte’s out-of-town activities were not being given “extensive” coverage as he chided media entities for focusing on the President’s cuss words and remarks on his campaign against illegal drugs.
He said that did not give justice to the programs that the President was doing for the Filipino people.
“The media is merely watching his cuss words, drugs; they’re just watching them because they’re always on the front page,” Piñol said.
