Learn the art of ‘lying closest to the truth’

Learn the delicate art of “lying closest to the truth.”

Such was the advice given by Sen. Panfilo Lacson to President Duterte’s communications officials who spent recent weeks falling all over themselves in trying to explain the conflicting statements of the chief executive.

“When doing damage control, [these aides] should learn the art of lying closest to the truth,” Lacson said on Wednesday. “They should [also] practice having just one voice [instead of having] different explanations,” he added.

Lacson said the communications team should learn to slip little notes to the President during his public engagements to provide “a simple, informative executive brief on a regular basis.”

Policy statements

The former national police chief said Mr. Duterte might be taking his time to fulfill his promise to metamorphose “into a real statesman,” but warned that if the inconsistencies in his public statements drag on, the administration’s credibility might soon suffer before the international community.

“[They might say] ‘What’s with the Philippines? How can we deal with a country with conflicting policy statements? Whether we like it or not, when it’s the President who is talking, the assumption is that [what he says is] already policy, and everything else should conform with his pronouncements,” Lacson said.

The President’s communications team spent most of last week explaining to the media what Mr. Duterte actually said or what he really meant, and had on several occasions, pinned the blame on media for stirring up controversy.

Among the so-called media-driven gaffs was the President’s infamous curse at US President Barack Obama for the latter’s comments on the country’s human rights situation.  The curse led to Obama’s cancellation of his meeting with Duterte on the sidelines of the ASEAN meet in Laos last week.