THE PRESIDENTIAL Communication Office (PCO) is taking comfort that its blunders are “forgivable lapses” and not moral transgressions that involve corruption.

“For me, I’m just a human who makes mistakes, but at least I did not make any mistakes involving money, right? Small things we can [let go] but I’m not saying that our mistakes were small,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a radio interview.

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The former TV news anchor and his team received a lot of flak recently for several missteps like the historical revisionism in the Official Gazette which declared Ferdinand Marcos the “longest serving president” without mentioning his declaration of martial law and announcing that President Duterte would be seated between US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the Asean summit gala dinner when this was not so.

Andanar noted that government officials usually found themselves in the news because they were caught up in corruption, but “our lapses have nothing to do with money, these are lapses that can be cured any time, these are forgivable lapses.”

Andanar said he would continue to “work cleanly” regardless of the criticism his office receives.

He said that as a “leader,” he has learned to take constructive criticism and to move forward and work harder. “What is important is our conscience is clear,” he repeated.

Consolidate friends

On clarifying issues and statements made by President Duterte, Andanar said his strategy was to first “consolidate our friends in media and streamline our communication process” on the home front before moving out to touch base with Filipinos overseas and “social media supporters” until the message gets to the “shores of the Western world.”

He said that giving in to the barrage of criticism, especially on the human rights issue, was not an option for him and his team.

“I think we just have to work and not assume that we should still be enjoying our honeymoon period. We don’t want to be disappointed just because we expect there should be a honeymoon period. The most important thing here is that in our heart of hearts we know that we are working hard for the good of our country,” he said.

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Andanar said he would heed the advice of some senators to ask Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to issue a memorandum designating the official Palace spokespersons for the President to avoid confusion in communicating Mr. Duterte’s official messages.

Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon made the suggestion to Andanar when the latter appeared at the Senate committee hearing into the Presidential Communications Office budget for next year.

Suggested mouthpieces

Drilon suggested the official mouthpieces be Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, Medialdea and Andanar himself.

Drilon also suggested that Medialdea issue an order on this to ensure that it is followed by the other Cabinet members.

Meanwhile, the PCO admitted it had yet to ask President Duterte for his reaction to the testimony of the supposed hit man who appeared at the Senate last week and accused him of ordering killings when he was Davao City mayor.

Andanar said this was the reason for the President’s continued silence to the claim of Edgar Matobato at the Senate that he was part of the Davao Death Squad that killed criminals since the 1990s.

“I still have to ask [the President]. I have not talked to him yet,” Andanar told reporters at the Senate after the budget hearing.

He said the President was in Bulacan when Matobato testified at the Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the ongoing government war on drugs.

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