Secretary Andanar: Scrap political color in Covid-19 response
MANILA - Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Thursday called for public support for the government's efforts towards recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Secretary Andanar said that political color should not be an issue in continuing the programs and projects because public welfare is at stake.
“Ang pakiusap ko lang po ay sana tulungan po natin si Presidente hanggang sa matapos ang kanyang termino na nagko-cooperate po tayo. Sapagkat nakafocus po tayo dito sa recovery roadmap po natin [I ask that we help the President until the end of his term, that we cooperate with him. Because we are focusing on our recovery roadmap],” he said.
Let us please help the President because we are just one country, one nation. Sana walang kulay politika [Let us help the President because we are just one country, one nation. There shouldn't be political color],” he added.
Duterte legacy of unique reporting from previous admins
In the same interview Secretary Andanar said that the roll out of the Duterte Legacy communications campaign is an upgrade on how the government reports to the people.
He noted that reporting the accomplishments of the administration no longer only relies on the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the current President.
He said that these accomplishments can be discussed by conducting massive information dissemination efforts which tackle how the campaign promises of the chief executive are being carried out to the grassroots level.
Secretary Andanar hopes that this new strategy of accomplishment reporting will be adopted by the future administrations so that they can also cement the initiatives that are undertaken by the government that are geared in developing the country.
“Ang Duterte legacy campaign ay isang report po ng ating pamahalaan tungkol sa mga nagawa ni President Rodrigo Roa Duterte sa kanyang termino. Alam naman natin na ang ating presidente ay mayroon pong mga pangako noong 2016 at tinupad niya po ito [The Duterte legacy campaign is a report of the government about the accomplishments of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during his term. We all know that the President made promises in 2016 and he delivered these],” he said.
The PCOO chief said that the administration still welcomes the presence of critics, stressing that it attests to the respect of the government for every Filipino's right to exercise democratic values.
“Maganda naman na mayroong critics. Ibig sabihin nito buhay ang ating demokrasya dahil hinahayaan natin sila na magcriticize. Ito naman ay civic responsibility ng isang citizen ng isang democratic country [It’s good that we have critics. This only means that democracy is alive because we allow them to criticize. This is a civic responsibility of a citizen in a democratic country],” he said.
“Kung maganda naman ang mga sinasabi at ito naman ay constructive criticism, eh at least these critics keep the government up on its toes [If what they are saying is sound and they are constructive criticisms then at least these critics keep the government up on their toes],” he added.
