COMMUNICATIONS Secretary Martin Andanar on Sunday admitted that he made a mistake in releasing wrong information that President Rodrigo Duterte would be seated between US President Barack Obama and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon during the gala dinner at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit last week.
Andanar, speaking on radio dzBB, said he would take full responsibility for releasing the wrong information in the official press release, and that he regretted the mistake.
Andanar said “there was a small problem” with the Presidential News Desk, which released information about the seating arrangements without checking the facts.
“I take full responsibility for that boo-boo. But I’d like to assure the Malacañang Press Corps that I’ve already ordered an investigation on… why this kind of information went out without my approval. It’s not a matter to laugh about,” Andanar said.
“I regret what happened. It was an unintentional. We’re looking into the problem,” Andanar said.
Andanar said that last Wednesday, when the dinner was scheduled, he remembered the press asking him about the seating arrangements.
“I remember saying these words that it’s difficult to speculate, and I was surprised to learn that there was a [press release] …from my office,” he said.
“So we take the problem seriously. I’ve have ordered Undersecretary Enrique Tandan to look into it. Undersecretary Tandan now is the person looking over, managing the Presidential News Desk—what happened there,” Andanar said.
Andanar’s office announced on Sept. 7 that President Rodrigo Duterte would sit in between Obama and Ban at the Asean gala dinner in Laos.
“Presidents Duterte and Obama will be seated next to each other, which expectedly, will focus all cameras on them to deliver to the world the encounter of the two. Incidentally, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also seated on the other side of President Duterte,” the official press release said.
At the dinner, Duterte was seated away from Obama and Ban, however. The Philippine leader was instead flanked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.