Coloma: Having 2 media secretaries is legal

MANILA, Philippines - Communications Group Secretary Herminio Coloma explained yesterday that having two secretaries in Malacañang’s media department is nothing new and is, in fact, legal.

Coloma explained that during the previous administration, the presidential spokesman got the rank of secretary along with the press secretary and the supervising secretary for government media, which was last held by Conrado Limcaoco Jr., who also headed the Philippine Information Agency.

There are criticisms that the media group of the Aquino administration is already crowded with officials like Coloma, Ricky Carandang and Edwin Lacierda all holding Cabinet rank as secretaries. But only Coloma and Carandang are part of the Communications Group because Lacierda’s office is under the Office of the President.

“So, it is not as if it is totally new that all of a sudden there are three. This is in accordance with the old practice. And in the Communications Group itself, there are only two secretaries. Although functionally, we will help one another because we only have one objective and that is communications in behalf of the President and of the executive department,” Coloma said in an interview over government television network NBN 4.

Coloma also denied any infighting within the Communications Group, saying they are backing one another.

“Everyday we talk. Maybe it’s better to look at the things that we have to do, let us not think of anything else,” Coloma said.

He also noted that there was no duplication of the work because of the three Fs – feed in or the coming in of information, feed forward after processing the inputs that the people would need to know, and feedback.

“In these three Fs there is an overlap or interplay in both message and dissemination because they are very dynamic,” Coloma said.

Coloma is in charge of media operations while Carandang for oversees messaging. Coloma said the two functions were only different conceptually but very interactive and would need cooperation.

Coloma likewise said people should hold judgment against Carandang, who had been accused of bias for his former television station ABS-CBN, which was said to be getting advance information, including a copy of President Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address.

Mr. Aquino had ordered an investigation into the leak of the copy of the SONA to ABS-CBN News Channel before the President made his speech at the joint session of Congress in Quezon City last July 26.

“There are no findings yet. And I would like to affirm and stress our belief that there should be fairness and a level playing field, which is a basic principle of good governance. And we will follow this in communications and mass media,” Coloma said.

Mr. Aquino personally met with the Communications Group to discuss various concerns, including the leak.

“If there were lapses in the past, we, along with the President, are really determined not to let this happen again. Because it’s important for us to have a level playing field,” Coloma stressed.