Aquino's (mis)Communications Group

Thursday's budget hearing at the House of Representatives proved what everyone knew all along: the President's men could not hack it.

The Forgotten Phone, Strike 1

Defending the Office of the President's proposed P4.075 billion budget for 2011, Executive Secretary (ES) Paquito Ochoa Jr., Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, and Communications Secretaries Ricky Carandang and Herminio Coloma, answered lawmakers' questions like - you guessed it - a bunch of amateurs.

As the recent "jueteng controversy" continues to plague Palace appointees, Ochoa et al. - designated as government "caretakers" in the absence of the President - had not the vaguest idea how their principal (Aquino) hopes to address the issue.

Asked why Carandang had not communicated to President Benigno Aquino III, who is currently on official mission to the United States, the Communications Secretary replied, "I have been texting the President, but I was informed by his staff that he had left his phone in Manila."

Immediately, the gallery burst into laughter as House minority leader Edcel Lagman stopped his questioning. House committee chairman Jun Abaya then thanked Carandang for his "good answer," once more sending the crowd into a laughing frenzy.

Magsaysay Rep. Mitos Magsaysay later told Aquino's Secretary: "I admire you for your honesty, (but) I hope you don't repeat that." 

The (mis)Communications Group, Strike 2

Grilled further by lawmakers on how the group had bungled management of communications during the August 23 hostage-taking incident, Carandang admitted there had in fact been a "confusion." "Birth pains," he added.

Carandang had previously said there were no media guidelines yet governing hostage situations after Coloma had already declared that there was one.

Clarifying their roles as heads of the administration's communications team, Carandang said he was there to explain the Presidents plans and programs; Coloma said his role was to disseminate information; while Lacierda said he serves as the President's "mouthpiece."

All three said, they have learned their lesson from the hostage taking fiasco, and have started to coordinate with each other closely.

Given the "hairsplitting" definition of their functions however, observers are left asking "how?"

The IIRC Report "Review," Strike 3

While it has been previously and widely reported that the recommendations of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) were left for the review of the President's "legal team" composed of ES Ochoa and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Ed de Mesa, it turned out everybody was just taken for a ride.

During the same hearing of the appropriations committee, Ochoa admitted that he is in no way, authorized to make recommendations on the IIRC report. 

Simply put, the "legal committee" was constituted so that the report may be "simplified for the President" - Ochoa's words.

Pressed further as to when the undisclosed portions of the report will be made accessible to Congress and the public, Aquino's Executive Secretary replied: "the IIRC report was really intended to be submitted to the President only." 

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For the "entertainment value" provided by their answers, the appropriations committee, approved the budget of the Office of the President for 2011

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And then again, I reiterate a previous statement: The least an inexperienced Chief Executive can do is to surround himself with competent advisers (or cabinet members)

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On the hostage-taking incident, Aquino was previously quoted as having said, "Our problems now, in two or three years, we can say they are laughable when we recall that they were not that grave."

Does this explain your choice of jokers for Cabinet posts?

We might appreciate it more if the world had been laughing with us instead of at us.

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Joseph Estrada was a popular. He had the same feeling of invincibility. He was kicked out of office in two years.

After two or three years (even 8), he still has not found that a laughing matter. (DPG)