Palace wants to meet with pundits it blames for Aquino’s ratings
MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang now wants to meet with opinion writers after some columnists reacted harshly to reports that Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda had blamed them for the decline in President Benigno Aquino III’s satisfaction ratings.
“We’ll keep on pushing the good news and… we need to engage the columnists more because unlike the members of the press corps, whom we relate with on a day to day basis, we don’t really get together with them on an extended basis,” Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said over government radio dzRB yesterday.
Weak messaging
Valte clarified that Lacierda wasn’t blaming anybody for the perception issues during Wednesday’s news briefing when he first mentioned the columnists as a factor in Mr. Aquino’s plunging ratings.
She said there was just a question of what the communications group intended to do after President Aquino revealed in Davao City that his administration’s main weakness was messaging.
Lacierda answered that Malacañang didn’t have any problems with members of the media who cover Mr. Aquino but has some issues with columnists.
On Thursday, Lacierda clarified his statements regarding columnists and asked for fair criticisms.
Verify facts
He called on columnists to verify their facts before stating them as such in their articles and to base their commentaries on the information that they have.
Lacierda cited an opinion writer he didn’t name but who, he said, commented that President Aquino’s flights at the airport had caused half-hour delays for other flights.
He said the information was wrong, adding that Naia General Manager Jose Angel Honrado had told him the delays for security purposes were only for five to 15 minutes.
“If you want to state something as fact, you have to verify it first,” Lacierda said.
Valte said the communications group made up of Lacierda, communications secretaries Herminio Coloma and Ricky Carandang would meet with the columnists in the coming weeks.
“We intend really to engage them more and to touch base with them so we can establish personal relationships,” Valte said.
Valte said there must have been some misimpression of the President’s spokespersons because opinion writers only see and hear them on television for a few sound bites.
