Be fair, Palace asks columnists

MANILA, Philippines—If they must write adverse commentary on President Benigno Aquino III, they should first verify the facts that they use as the basis for their opinions, Malacañang told newspaper columnists.

“If you want to state something as fact, you have to first verify it,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing on Thursday.

“That’s the only request…. Criticize us fairly,” he said.

He gave the example of one such columnist who, he said, wrote that flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport are held for a half hour whenever the President goes on overseas trips.

According to Lacierda, he checked with Naia general manager Jose Angel Honrado and learned that flights, other than that which the President is taking, are held up for security reasons from five to 15 minutes only.

Lacierda would not disclose the name of the columnist.

On Wednesday, the presidential spokesperson took up the theme of columnists being the bane of the Palace, a day after Mr. Aquino himself said that his administration’s main weakness was a failure to communicate its achievements.

“Our main weakness is messaging,” Mr. Aquino said at a news conference in Davao City on Wednesday.

“For whatever reason, when we watch the news, when we read the newspapers, when we listen to the radio, it is as if we have not accomplished anything, that we have not instituted reforms, that nothing has been fixed,” he added.

It was not the first time that the President had lamented the failure of his administration to get the message of his feats to the public.

Last January, the President complained that the media were unduly focusing on his purchase of a Porsche, an expensive German sports car, rather than the more than P29 billion that government firms had remitted to the Treasury.

He said the P21 billion represented a marked increase from what state corporations had turned over the previous year.

Lacierda said it was agreed at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that Cabinet secretaries would henceforth communicate more with each other and release regular reports so that the programs of the administration are relayed to the people.

He said Cabinet departments would convey “the good news” to the Presidential Management Staff and the communications group.

He said the need to bring out the good news was emphasized “not only once but twice.”

Cabinet secretaries were told to coordinate closely with the communications group, he said.

While the communications group has the responsibility of releasing the good news to the people, this move would be dependent on the output from the departments, Lacierda said.