Aquino unhappy with speeches, not writers

He has junked the speeches but not the speech writers.

While President Aquino has been candid about his badly written speeches, his spokespersons have seen no displeasure on the part of their boss, or so they say.

Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, said she meets with the President every day but has never heard him air any dissatisfaction with the Malacañang Communications Group.

“I have seen the President on a daily basis for the last week and he hasn’t mentioned anything to that effect,” Valte said Sunday over government-run radio.

Valte said the President was very honest and frank so that if he felt there was something that had to be improved, he would say so immediately. “Actually, I don’t know where that particular observation came from,” she said.

When Aquino addressed a prayer assembly in Pasig City last Friday, he discarded a prepared speech in favor of a hastily crafted personal one.

“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 that the speech prepared by my normally gifted speech writers was inadequate,” Aquino told the 2013 Care for Philippines Prayer Assembly at the Global Discipleship Congress in Pasig City.

Secretary Edwin Lacierda and Valte alternate every week in briefing reporters on the goings-on in Malacañang. Strategic Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang talks to the media on certain issues.

Lacierda is on a two-week leave.

Interestingly, Carandang, who usually joins the President at regional summits, was not part of the presidential delegation that attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Brunei in late April. He kept a low profile for a time, fueling rumors he was on the way out, but he reappeared after the May 13 elections.

While they continue to enjoy the President’s confidence, the spokespersons always try to introduce something new, Valte said.

“We are always looking to improve strategies that we can employ, and there is always room for improvement as far as we are concerned,” she said.