FINDING himself in hot water again for breaking a major policy announcement on the privately run ABS-CBN television network, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda has made a ?startling? discovery: His job in government is vastly different from his work in the presidential election campaign.

?I got pummeled immediately,? he said in an interview on state-run dzRB radio, chuckling at the memory of the angry protests he got from the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) over his latest blunder.

?Working in government is different. I have to really adjust. The government is larger, so I have to deal with a lot of stakeholders. Everything is new, and I?m still learning,? he said.

Open to criticisms

Lacierda, who acted as Mr. Aquino?s campaign spokesperson and is reprising that role in the new government, had to apologize to the MPC which denounced his announcing Memorandum Circular No. 2 on ABS-CBN instead of on the state-run National Broadcasting Network as dictated by protocol.

Lacierda said he was open to criticism from the press because he was still ?learning the ropes.?

?Be patient with me. You may criticize me and you may be angry with me. If you?re right, what can I do? I?m learning from those criticisms,? he added.

Acting MPC president Mia Gonzales e-mailed Lacierda on Friday, protesting his breaking the news of the MC2 on ABS-CBN.

MC2 extended the term of non-career employees holding Career Executive Service Officers positions in the bureaucracy until Oct. 31, superseding MC1 which originally specified their last day in office on July 31.

Second faux pas

It was Lacierda?s second faux pas, and on the same issue at that. On July 1, he did not show up at a scheduled press conference in Malacañang that he had called, only to appear a few hours later on ANC, the ABS-CBN news channel, to announce corrections to Memorandum Circular No. 1, the precursor to MC2.

Lacierda explained that he felt the urgent need to announce the issuance of the MC2 on ABS-CBN to assure the large number of non-Ceso bureaucrats who feared they would be out of a job by Saturday.

?I was worried about the government workers. But my mistake was I should have disclosed it first to the MPC,? he said.

He cleared former ABS-CBN correspondent and now Communications Group Secretary Ricky Carandang, and ComGroup Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III, the former Inquirer columnist whose ?The Explainer? television show ran on ANC, of involvement in the fiasco.

?It?s entirely my fault. Ricky and Manolo, they were totally not part of that. It was my own decision, and I stand by it,? he said.

What about Sona leak?

Malacañang reporters, already testy over the Palace?s perceived bias for the Lopez-owned television network, became even more suspicious when Mr. Aquino?s State of the Nation Address (Sona) was also leaked to ABS-CBN, which posted the speech on ANC?s Facebook just moments after the President delivered it in Congress last July 26.

Lacierda assured the media that no ?advance copy of any speech? would be furnished the Lopez network.

He promised that from now on, announcements of any policy developments would be made to Malacañang reporters first.

Malacañang also rejected appeals by a group of employees of the ABS-CBN for the President to intervene in their complaints of unfair labor practices by management.

?ABS is a publicly listed company. It has its own management. I think it?s a private entity. President Aquino doesn?t need to step into these because there are appropriate agencies to address these concerns of alleged labor problems,? said Lacierda.