Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ILIGAN CITY – Communications Secretary Martin Andanar on Friday complained that personnel of the Presidential Communications Office (PCOO), including those manning the International Press Center (IPC), have repeatedly committed blunders.
Despite the bloopers, Andanar said he would not ask the resignation of the press center staff.
Early Friday, Andanar ordered the recall of Malacañang-issued media identification cards, which critics and grammarians said were studded with grammatical errors.
“There’s a breach in protocol on four counts. The (IPC) staff did not show me the back flip of the ID. Only the front flip was shown to me and asked my opinion,” Andanar lamented.
He said the final design of the ID was not returned to him for approval before it was issued.
But the biggest blunder so far, Andanar said, was the illegal use of his e-signature.
“They illegally used my e-signature because I do not issue e-signature unless I have checked everything and I explicitly issue permission for its use,” he said.
Andanar said what made the matters worse was that the IPC used the wrong e-signature.
“They used the wrong e-signature because I have a new e-signature. I had to change my e-signature because there was a missing letter in the first one,” he said.
Andanar said the “breach in protocol” was being addressed internally “so that it would not happen again.”
Asked if heads would be rolling at the IPC, made up of senior Communications personnel – who had been in government for years already – Andanar said: “No, I think it would not. These are minor mistakes that are done by staff. It will go through the usual show cause order,” he said.
Andanar said the problem at IPC was only among problems hounding the PCOO.
He also spoke of the transcription by PCOO staff of a hoax interview of an impersonator of President Duterte over dzRH.
Malacañang had sent out transcript of the hoax interview only to recall it later.
“These are problems that are being addressed and it has something to do with the old system, the old people that are involved,” Andanar said.
But in general, he said the PCOO had improved a lot.
“But if you look at the PCOO in general, there are a lot of good changes happening,” he said.
Andanar said there was still a “need to fix internal processes, internal systems and we need to train people.”
“This is part of strengthening the organization. It’s quite frustrating when even those at IPC do not know how to write, wrong grammar,” he said.
Andanar said he was “not happy about it.”
“But we are fixing it, including the standard operating procedure,” he added.