Info blitz to highlight Rody government achievements

MANILA, Philippines - The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) will conduct a multi-platform information blitz to highlight the Duterte administration’s accomplishments during its first year.

PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar said state-run media outlets are now preparing reports to be released on June 30, exactly a year after President Duterte assumed office.

“We are working on the report. It will come out on TV, radio and newspaper,” Andanar told Radyo 5 yesterday.

Andanar said his office aims to deliver the message across all platforms.

The office of presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella and the Philippine News Agency are preparing written reports while PTV-4 is coming up with a video presentation.

Radyo Pilipinas is working on an audio report while the PCOO is coming up with an online video report.

‘Fast and furious politics’

While he has a communication team, Duterte is often his own spokesman, dishing out sound bites that shocked, provoked, pressured, comforted and challenged his audience.

He has made his mark as a disruptor who wants things done fast, even if it means shaking up institutions and challenging authority and traditions.

His iron fist governance is accompanied by tough, provocative statements that the PCOO has had to clarify or even downplay later on.

Political science professor Richard Heydarian said Duterte has demonstrated what he called a “fast and furious brand of politics,” citing Duterte’s swift action against illegal drugs and his determination to pursue talks with rebel groups.

“You can see that in his first year, the President engaged in a proactive transformation of the Philippines,” Heydarian told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

“You may not agree with everything he said, his methods, his war on drugs but nonetheless, he is shaking up the system,” he added.

Alvin Ang, an economist of the Ateneo de Manila University, described Duterte’s first months in office as “shock and awe.”

“I think it had phases. The first three months was characterized by shock and awe… He is fixing a lot of things and there were disruptions,” Ang said.

“His continuing approach is overt mayoral type of management… He wants to reach out to as many people as possible but it can backfire. He will be weary. I guess the plans are good but you will see the reality that it’s not that simple,” he added.

Tough words

Describing Duterte’s pronouncements with the diplomatic words colorful and unconventional is making an understatement.

The tough-talking leader cursed at foreign nations – including the Philippines’ traditional ally the US – and diplomats whom he accused of meddling with the country’s internal issues.

He called US president Barack Obama son of a b**** and the European Union ‘crazy’ for allegedly interfering with his bloody war on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead.

Duterte also called a United Nations official an “idiot” after the diplomat called for an investigation on the killings linked to the Philippine government’s drug crackdown.

He would later claim that money from illegal drugs is fueling the terrorist activities in Marawi, a threat that prompted him to place the entire island of Mindanao under martial law last May 23.

Duterte also lashed out at his political rivals and even went as far as exposing the alleged romantic affair between his critic Sen. Leila de Lima and her married driver.

He also called another critic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a “tulisan” or bandit as he accused the lawmaker of engaging in a “lucrative business” of collecting retainers from certain individuals.

Duterte also released the names of politicians and uniformed men with alleged ties to drug syndicates, accused television giant ABS-CBN and broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer of bias, and called the Roman Catholic Church, which has been critical of his clampdown on narcotics, “full of s***.”