Bring back Office of Press Secretary, Senate chief urges

Senate President Vicente Sotto III wants the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to revert to the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) to make it more effective.

At a budget hearing on Wednesday, Sotto said the PCOO was created during the previous administration, along with the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO), “to accommodate some political friends of the previous administration.”

PCDSPO scrapped

The PCDSPO has since been scrapped, but the Duterte administration has retained the PCOO.

According to Sotto, the PCOO has veered away from the original intent of the creation of the OPS.

‘Completely digressed’

“Lately, the perspective of some members of the Senate is that we have completely digressed already from the original intent of the creation of the Office of the Press Secretary,” he said.

Bringing back the OPS and streamlining the office that communicates Malacañang’s messages would make it more effective, he said.

His proposal could be studied during the discussions on the PCOO’s current P1.474-billion budget, he added. —With a report from Christine O. Avendaño