Noy unhappy with communications group?

MANILA, Philippines - The message just isn’t getting across.

President Aquino seems unhappy about the performance of his communications group, including his speechwriters.

The President did away with his prepared speech for a prayer assembly in Pasig City on Friday, admitting that he would sometimes ask if his administration’s communication strategy has been effective enough to be understood by the people.

The President said he could not help but wonder why the good things were not being appreciated by the public.

“If you will notice I had the teleprompter removed. I am not actually happy with the speech. I don’t know if it’s becoming a tradition that every time I appear before you, I find the speech prepared by my normally gifted speechwriters is inadequate,” Aquino said during the Care for Philippines Prayer Assembly on the Occasion of the Global Discipleship Congress of the Christ’s Commission Foundation, Inc. and K4 Philippines Intercessors Movement.

“So, since waking up and on the way here, I have been drafting a speech. So it will tend to be disorganized and I apologize in advance. And, of course, somehow I may have had the impression that I would be talking primarily to Filipinos, it turns out that there are delegations from about 20 different countries present today – 60 plus countries. So that means I had to rewrite the speech that I was drafting because it was in Filipino,” Aquino said.

“So again if there are errors, they are solely mine,” he said.

Aquino’s communications group is led by Herminio Coloma and former ABS-CBN News Channel news anchor Ricky Carandang, both with the rank of Cabinet secretary. Former columnist Manolo Quezon III is undersecretary.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office, which Coloma heads, is in charge of information dissemination and media relations.

The Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, which is headed by Carandang, is involved in coordinating the crafting and enhancing of the messaging system under the Office of the President. The Speech Writers Group is among its attached agencies.

The President said some members of the media, citing his exchange of text messages with a veteran journalist, are not even aware of the increase in tourist arrivals in the country and the employment figures.