Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Thursday he will be handling all statements on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte, following a reorganization at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).
Meanwhile, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar will focus on the office’s administrative functions and managing its attached agencies. These include the following:
Philippine Information Agency
News and Information Bureau
People’s Television Network, Inc. (PTV-4)
Radio Television Malacañang (RTVM)
Bureau of Broadcast Services
Bureau of Communication Services
National Printing Office
APO Production Unit
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC 13)
“I will concentrate on running PCOO and its attached agencies to ensure lasting reforms,” Andanar said in a statement to CNN Philippines. “I will speak from time to time if Spokesperson Ernie Abella is not around. The entire PCOO ‘Content Group’ is now under Spokesperson Abella.”
Andanar’s ‘cold’ relations with media
Although the PCOO did not give a specific reason for the reorganization, Andanar has often courted controversy when facing his former colleagues in the media.
Last month, the ex-TV5 journalist told CNN Philippines that Senate reporters were allegedly offered a $1,000 (around ₱50,000) bribe to cover Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s press conference on February 20.
Read: Andanar alleges bribes of $1,000 offered to journalists; reporters slam claim
Trillanes, a fierce critic of Duterte, hosted former police officer Arthur Lascañas in the Senate.
In the briefing, Lascañas retracted his earlier testimony to the Senate and claimed to be the founder of the alleged Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group linked to extrajudicial killings supposedly ordered by then Mayor Duterte.
Read: Blind loyalty: Self-proclaimed DDS leader says he followed Duterte’s orders to kill
Senate reporters immediately denied Andanar’s claim and demanded an apology from him.
“We would like to ask the good Secretary to prove his allegations as we are now placed under a cloud of doubt, and our reputations besmirched. Otherwise, we would ask Secretary Andanar to publicly apologize for his irresponsible statements,” they said in a statement.
In a Malacañang press conference days later, Andanar praised Senate reporters for “sticking to their journalistic integrity,” saying that he did not receive any reports of journalists accepting the alleged payoff.
Read: Andanar: Alleged $1000 media bribe part of plot to oust Duterte
But during that briefing, Andanar got into a heated exchange with Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Marlon Ramos when the latter pressed him about an alleged plot to overthrow the President, despite Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon downplaying such claims.
The two eventually made up after the press conference.
At a Wednesday dinner hosted by Senate President Koko Pimentel for the Senate media, Andanar got a cordial but cold reception from reporters.
He has still not apologized for the bribery allegation.
Read: Relations between Andanar and Senate reporters still on ice
