Senator Santiago goes to war vs gov’t gobbledygook

If President Benigno Aquino III sometimes feels that his message is often lost in translation, perhaps this bill will do the trick.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who admits to backing any sitting President, has taken on a new advocacy to encourage—and essentially institute—effective communication strategies throughout the bureaucracy.

Santiago is pushing the “Plain Language Act” to “improve the effectiveness and accountability of government agencies to the public by promoting clear communications that the public can understand and use.”

“If the communications are easily understood, regulatory offices and nongovernment watch groups will be able to follow the information and participate promptly and more effectively,” she wrote in the explanatory note to Senate Bill No. 1859.

“In using plain language, we will be able to communicate information to a broader range of recipients in terms if educational capacity. We will be able to reach out to more people inside and outside of the government,” she added.

Santiago is one of the more articulate members of the Senate, whose remarks border on the witty and high-brow and, occasionally, the insulting.

She called an enemy “fungus face,” and once described the late Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes as “one of the greatest morons in history” for denying knowledge of or involvement in military corruption under his watch.

Inarticulate Comm Group?

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday criticized the Aquino administration, particularly its much-ballyhooed Communications Group, for supposedly failing to articulate its programs well.

Shortly after he was sworn in, the President made it clear that he was putting a premium on communication as a key element of successful governance.

He abolished the old Office of the Press Secretary and replaced it with the Communications Group, whose task was generally divided into operations and crafting of information content.

He has at least five official mouthpieces led by his spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, and the latter’s deputy, Abigail Valte.

Still, Santiago believes that the quality of the message—one that is easily grasped by the general public—is key.

To be covered by her bill are “any documents [other than a regulation] issued by an agency to the public, including documents and other text released in electronic form.”

The bill will also require local government units and government-owned and -controlled corporations to use plain language in their official documents.

How plain is plain?

Exactly what constitutes plain language will depend on the guidelines to be released by the Civil Service Commission, according to SB 1859.

Within a year after the bill takes effect, heads of agencies are to report both to the Senate and the House of Representatives their respective communication strategies.

The strategies should meet five objectives, including “training agency employees to write in plain language.”