Andanar told: Heads should roll over PNA headline booboos

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Exasperated by the series of bloopers that made the Philippine News Agency (PNA) a laughingstock on social media, a congresswoman on Saturday asked Communications Secretary Martin Andanar to launch an investigation and discipline erring staff.

“The mishaps at the PNA have now reached the level of several too many. It is now time for some order amid the chaos,” said Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy.

On Friday, netizens poked fun at the state-run PNA after its website published news items with editors’ notes and instructions that someone apparently forgot to delete.

In one example, the headline of a story about the Department of Health included an instruction to a certain “Lei” to “re-angle this” and to focus on the link between skin disease and toxic waste.

Note to ‘Primo’

Another headline asked “Primo” to submit all Palarong Pambansa stories to the national section so they could be edited by “Betsy.”

Some of the stories were found to have been on the PNA website uncorrected for weeks or even months.

In a statement, Herrera-Dy asked Andanar and PNA head, Undersecretary Joel Egco, to launch an investigation and file “appropriate administrative and disciplinary cases,” where penalties range from suspension to dismissal.

Officials of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) “clearly need to enforce discipline and professionalism,” she stressed, adding that erring staff members could be cited for simple or gross neglect of duty.

PNA is under the News and Information Bureau or NIB of the PCOO, the lawmaker noted.

“This year, NIB has a budget of P124.765 million. For 2018, the administration is asking for a P129.125 million budget for the NIB, including the PNA,” she said.

PCOO is asking Congress for an additional P1 billion on top of its P1.35 billion proposed budget for 2018.