Palace: No crackdown on disinformation

Although Malacañang knows who would benefit from what it describes as a "disinformation" campaign against President Arroyo, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday the administration is unlikely to crack down on the sources of the supposed campaign.

Bunye made the assurance as opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara slammed Malacañang for blaming their camp for negative reports that the senator said emanated from administration officials themselves.

Bunye refused to identify who was supposed to be responsible for the purported disinformation campaign. Instead he gave assurance that a "pro-active" public communications program would be pursued by the government.

"We can guess as to who would possibly benefit from this disinformation campaign because the objective, it seems, is to agitate the people and sow discontent among them so that they’ll become dissatisfied with the present dispensation," Bunye said.

"(But) I think we will be dissipating our energies if we try to go around looking for those responsible. What we intend to do is just go on a pro-active information activity and we’ll just have to go out and explain to the people what this administration intends to do," he added.

Bunye said the need to "explain to the people" was the reason the government commissioned a radio and television "infomercial" campaign.

"It is the duty of government to inform and if you have to fund this information campaign, so be it," Bunye said.

"It would be (more) difficult if we keep the people in the dark ... If we do not inform them, we would be failing as a leader. We would be failing as administrators if the people do not know what their government is doing," he added.

Presidential publicist Dante Ang echoed Bunye’s position and even suggested that a "more structured communication department" be set up, although he admitted that such a department may open the administration to criticism that it was indeed gearing for the 2004 presidential election.

"But they (the opposition) also have the same dilemma. Whatever they say or do also has something to do with 2004. Kaya tabla-tabla lang (So it evens up)," Ang said. "But at the end of the day, it’s still the performance that really counts."

Ang, who holds a one-peso a year position as presidential adviser on public relations, packaged then Sen. Gloria Arroyo in the image of popular movie actress Nora Aunor when Mrs. Arroyo ran for vice president in May 1998.

Ang was also behind the "Ina ng Bayan" infomercial campaign where Mrs. Arroyo appealed for the support of the Filipino people. The infomercials were withdrawn after adverse public reaction.

The Ina ng Bayan was followed by a series of infomercials featuring movie and television celebrities endorsing the Arroyo administration.

The latest ad campaign revolves on the theme that the Arroyo administration is responsible for bringing back "the good old days."

Bunye denied that the latest infomercial campaign is being conducted to shore up the President’s sagging popularity rating and insisted the program was effective in building an "informed citizenry" to counter the opposition’s supposed disinformation campaign.

Disinformation began at the Palace?

But Angara ridiculed Malacañang for blaming the opposition for the supposed disinformation campaign "when the examples of disinformation cited actually emanated from Malacañang itself."

"This is a squid tactic," he said of the attempt to blame the opposition. "This administration is really engaged in delusion... None of these pieces of disinformation came from us."

Angara advised Malacañang to provide "good, true and accurate information" which, he said, was the best way to fight disinformation.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also challenged Malacañang to "stop peddling half-truths about the real situation in the country instead of raising the bogey about an alleged disinformation plot against the administration."

He lamented that the airing of grievances of the citizenry against the "misgovernance" of the nation was being misconstrued by the Palace to be part of the supposed disinformation campaign.

"Instead of resorting to this diversionary tactic, the Arroyo administration should act fast in investigating the spate of scandals and scams that have rocked various agencies and in taking appropriate steps to safeguard public funds," Pimentel said.

Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, for her part, said the President was "seized by praning (paranoid) politics.

Oreta asked how the Palace could blame the opposition for the alleged disinformation campaign when "negative reports about the Arroyo administration were triggered by statements made by Malacañang officials or their allies in Congress."

Among these negative reports is the proposed abolition of the National Printing Office and 13 other agencies which was exposed by pro-administration Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House appropriations committee, in connection with the General Appropriations Act of 2003, Oreta said.

During a hearing of the Senate committee on civil service and government reorganization, Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin confirmed the plan and said it was part of the President’s vision of "reengineering" the bureaucracy.

Oreta also noted that the "negative report" that the government was planning to impose a tax on pre-paid cell phone cards emanated from the Department of Finance and was even confirmed by Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho. – With Efren Danao, Sammy Santos