Comelec Chair Andres Bautista. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to drop the use of “Honorable” in referring to the top officials of the poll body days after Malacañang issued a memorandum telling officials to stop addressing President Rodrigo Duterte as “His Excellency” and members of the Cabinet as “Honorable.”
“En Banc unanimously approved my proposal to drop the use of Honorable for the whole @COMELEC organization,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista tweeted on Tuesday.
In a subsequent tweet, Bautista said that “at the end of the day, our ‘honorables’ should never forget that honor, like respect, is not entitled but earned.”
The memorandum from the Palace, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said that “the President shall be addressed in all official communications, events or materials as President Rodrigo Roa Duterte only, and without the term His Excellency.”
READ: Drop ‘His Excellency,’ it’s just President Duterte
The decision of the poll body to drop the term “Honorable” entirely is a complete digression from what was stated in Medialdea’s memorandum, saying that government agencies can still use the term “Honorable” in addressing their respective heads of offices in their internal communications and documents. RAM/rga