Rody to have own radio-TV program

Although President Duterte shuns media interviews, his communications team vowed to bring him closer to the public through a nationwide radio-TV program, a free weekly newspaper and the social media.

The team also plans to open pioneering TV channels for Muslims and the lumad, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Martin Andanar told Inquirer editors and reporters in an interview on Thursday.

READ: Duterte TV, radio show, newspaper to go nationwide in August

Mr. Duterte has big ideas for the government’s TV station PTV 4 as well, which includes changing its charter and giving it “editorial independence,” Andanar added.

For a start, the communications team will convert the former Davao City mayor’s weekly TV show, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” into a nationwide TV program renamed, “Mula sa Masa, Para sa Masa.”

The original Davao broadcast used to air on Sundays and offered Duterte’s take on pressing issues of the day.

“It’s not just a television program, it’s going to be on radio as well,” Andanar said of the show that will be broadcast in Filipino.  Online and social media platforms will also be tapped, the communications official said.

Weekly tabloid

Like former President Joseph Estrada, Mr. Duterte will have his own weekly newsletter, a tabloid that will be distributed for free, Andanar added.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the team was putting up as well a website where the public can send in questions to the Chief Executive.

“We’ll sort out those questions and answer those we can ably respond to,” Abella said.

For complaints, the 24-hour 8888 number was expected to be up and running next month, along with the 911 emergency hotline, Andanar said.

To widen the reach of the government network, the communications chief bared plans to put up a Muslim channel and a lumad or indigenous peoples’ channel, which dovetail with the plan to establish a government broadcast hub in Mindanao.

Also being considered was a government FM station geared toward the youth, similar to that of the United States or the United Kingdom, Andanar added.

National conversation

There are also plans to initiate a “national conversation” with different sectors including the fisherfolk and women on a monthly basis, the communications official said, “as a way of keeping our ears to the ground.”

As for giving PTV 4 editorial independence, Andanar said the President had suggested giving it a new charter that would essentially be a mash-up of its current one and that of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), which gets income from license fees paid by TV owners.

Andanar said the communications office’s “lofty goals” has the support of the President.

“That’s what [President Duterte] said clearly. [He told] the Cabinet: ‘you guys don’t have to be afraid of anything. As long as you do your jobs right, then your government channel will report what is right. If you do something wrong, then the government will report what you did,’” the PCO official said.

But embarking on these endeavors will entail beefing up the technical capabilities of government-owned broadcast facilities, Andanar acknowledged, adding that the PCO will be tapping the government’s unused assets, including FM radio frequencies.

‘Noise’

President Duterte earlier said he would no longer conduct media interviews to avoid making mistakes, a reference to the boycott call made by the international media organization, Reporters Without Borders, after his controversial remarks that seemed to justify the killing of journalists.

Abella, who said the President tapped him to become official spokesperson after the latter found some “noise” in his relationship with the media, described Mr. Duterte as a man of action.

“He’s veering away from being misinterpreted, from his perception of being misinterpreted. His perspective is, he’d rather spend more energy acting than explaining,” Abella said, adding that the President however knows how to listen and that he responds effectively. TVJ