THE complaint raised by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol that the Presidential Communications Operations Office is “too slow,” should be settled behind the scenes, the Palace said Tuesday.
“From his point of view, this is a question of work and there is nothing personal about the whole thing,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said.
“It’s not a question of meddling. He’s just voicing his own opinion. He is voicing his own concerns. These things actually should be settled behind the scenes,” Abella said.
Abella, who handles the content and messaging of the PCOO, said he did not take Piñol’s opinions personally.
Abella said that the PCOO would continue its operations while being open to improvements.
Piñol on Monday criticized the media operations of Malacañang as “slow.”
“Personally, as a former newsman myself, I think the handling of media operations at Malacañang is poor. I’m saying this frankly. Their operations are slow, and the independent media entitites beat them to the release of stories,” Piñol said in Filipino in an interview with reporters.
Piñol said he has already taken this up with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.
Piñol said he doubted there was a media campaign to push President Rodrigo Duterte to the top of TIME Magazine’s reader poll for its 100 most influential people feature.
“I’m just saying there are no operations of that sort because they cannot even organize the media operations of Malacañang very well,” Piñol said. “How much more a contest or popularity contest that has nothing to do with governance in the Philippines?”
He said Duterte’s out of town activities are not given extensive coverage as he also scored media entities for focusing on the President’s cuss words and remarks on his campaign against illegal drugs.
“That does not give justice to the programs that this guy is doing for the Filipino people,” Piñol said.
“What’s happening is that instead of releasing the official version of a story, Malacañang is issuing denials and corrections,” he said.
He added, however, that even the poor media operations would not hurt Duterte because “the guy doesn’t care.”