'No plan to revamp Palace communications group'

MANILA, Philippines -  Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. clarified yesterday that there is no plan to revamp the Presidential Communications Group despite the apparent shortcomings that President Aquino himself had acknowledged.

“There is no intention to revamp. We just have to keep reminding each other that we have to be more conscious about things like these good news,” he told radio dzXL.

Ochoa again insisted that there are no factions in the Aquino administration, although he admitted to being part of the so-called Samar group that includes close friends and relatives of the President.

He said that the performance of all Cabinet members is being reviewed on a day-to-day basis so that officials could improve their efforts to make sure that basic services are delivered to the public.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, one of four spokesmen of the President that include Presidential Communications Group Secretaries Sonny Coloma, Ricky Carandang and Edwin Lacierda, had confirmed that they indeed have to be more aggressive in informing the public of the achievements of the nine-month-old administration.

President Aquino said in Iloilo City last week that his satisfaction rating had declined and his Communications Group (ComGroup) should probably disseminate more information to the people.

“We take this as a sign to improve. But it’s not (entirely) the fault of the ComGroup,” Valte told state-run radio dzRB.

All that needs to be done is to “understand the functions” of each official, like that of Secretaries Coloma and Carandang.

She said the task of forming the message is under the umbrella of Carandang, a former broadcast journalist.

Valte said Coloma is in charge of the dissemination of the message through the government-run media agencies that he supervises like NBN Channel4, RPN Channel 9, IBC Channel 13 and dzRB.

Aquino blamed the decline in his satisfaction rating on the failure of the “good news” done by his administration to reach the public. He said there was a need to improve dissemination of information related to what the government is doing for the people.

Coloma said Philippine media could be very critical and that the challenge would be for the government agencies to relay the good news.

“Maybe the aspect of being critical is there. But that is normal and natural. Our only request is for the good developments to be reported as well, what we call the good news,” Coloma said on television.

The President’s communications group had vowed to be more aggressive in reporting the good news to the media but they could not tell whether these would get equal treatment vis-à-vis the other news or developments both here and abroad.

Coloma said they could understand that the news would have to be based on new developments and thus would always try to offer something new to the people.

“There’s always room for improvement. And we are with the information officers of the various department and agencies (in disseminating information). We have what we call the DevComNet (Development Communications Network). This is composed of the officials and employees of the various departments and agencies who are involved in communications,” Coloma said.  – With Aurea Calica