Martin Andanar

“It’s  a tough job,” Martin Andanar said about being secretary of the Presidential Communications Office,  whose primary role is to put  President Rodrigo Duterte  and his administration in a good light.  “I did not know it was this difficult,” the tall (6’2”), 42-year-old, personable communications man  elaborated, “The president is  one guy that doesn’t fall within a box. He does not want to be preempted. You give him a speech, he reads some parts, but does not follow it.”

“That,” he said, “ makes my job very challenging.”

Andanar  and Ernesto Abella head  the  Presidential Communications Office. Andanar  supervises the operations of government’s news and information  agencies, television and radio stations including Philippine Information Agency, Philippine News Agency, PTV-4 and PBS Radyo ng Bayan.

Abella is presidential spokesman; he is  the  primary source of presidential directives in the absence of President Duterte. When Abella is not available, Andanar serves as spokesman.

Andanar was appointed days before Duterte was installed as president. He was not  a kabarilan or kamaganak  of the former Davao City mayor. They had not even met personally.  But as a radio commentator on AksyonTV  and host/anchor at TV 5, Andanar kept  saying that  the prevalent  riding-in-tandem crimes and graft cases would not be happening  had  Mayor Duterte  been in control in Manila. His words of praise fell on the right ears;  before long, he was hailed to his eminence’s office in the southern city. The meeting resulted in an exclusive first ever media interview  on March 15, 2015 with the maverick executive. At the time, Digong had not made up his mind about running for president.

Their next meeting was on August 1st, 2015, in Cagayan de Oro city (Martin’s hometown) when both Digong and Martin were  godfathers at a friend’s child’s christening.  The mayor  was now asking him  for possible vice-presidential names, but Martin requested that these would be off-the-record.

What is  to be on record is his being friends with former President Noynoy Aquino. Martin has a car repair shop, where repairs were made on Noynoy’s cars, including the one  he used in Congress.

Another “causal relationship” between Digong and Martin  is his being married to the niece of former Senators Manny and Cynthia Villar. Martin’s wife  Alelee is the daughter of Las Pinas Mayor Nene Aguilar, brother of Senator Cynthia Villar. They have two children.

The senators’ son, Mark, was appointed secretary of  public works, but his appointment is believed by some observers as not based on  the  Aguilar-Andanar relationship, but on  Duterte’s  picking his men based on his own assessment  and his closest associates’ recommendations for government positions.

As a media man, Martin  covered  Digong’s  barnstorming tours,  but he had no inkling what lay ahead of him.  He was planning to go on his own, leave  broadcasting, and set up a fiber-optic business. After the presidential election, he was in Thailand when he received word that he was the president-elect’s choice for press secretary. On June 30, Digong  and Martin assumed their positions.

Martin was born in Palanan, Makati, near the St. Martin de Porres church. His father, Wencelito Andanar, is a former undersecretary at the Department of Interior and Local Government.  Martin was a sickly boy, and when his mother’s prayers for his health were answered, she named him after St.Martin.  He had his elementary and high school  education at Xavier University in CDO.  He obtained two bachelor’s  degrees (film and media studies, and social and political studies), at the University of Australia.

When he was doing broadcasting, he took advantage of  scholarships abroad, such as at Georgetown University for public policies;  Northern Illinois University, National University of  Singapore, and Harvard University  Kennedy School of Government for an international business program. He also attended  Asian Institute of Management. He said at a dinner.

He was news anchor, radio commentator, podcaster, audio blogger, voice-over artist and comedian. He last worked for TV 5. He headed the former head of News5 Everywhere, the online news video and audio portal of TV 5, and former anchor of Aksyon sa Umaga and Punto Asintado on Radio5 92.3 News FM And AksyonTV, sister stations of TV5. He was also a voice-over talent of News5, Aksyon TV, and Radyo 92.3 News FM. In 2004  and 2008 he won the 18th and  22nd Star Awards  for best male  newscaster  on television.

Neither Abella nor Andanar are  subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

Armed with determination to do a good job, to his dismay,  Andanar went under fire  for committing one communication gaffe after another. News reports list “miscommunication” on the coverage of President Duterte’s declaration of a state of lawless violence, a premature announcement on the seating arrangement at the ASEAN summit gala dinner, and the Official Gazette’s controversial Facebook post commemorating the 99th birth anniversary of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Andanar admitted PCO’s mistakes, attributing them to the “overzealousness” of staffers. He took full responsibility for the PCO’s lapses.

He told our media group he was “naïve” to think that the job would be dandy, only to find out that society “makes big small mistakes, turning them into political issues.” What he  really wanted, “from my heart, is to serve, to improve the agencies under me,” and communicate to the public the programs of government.

A difficult task  for him  is dealing with social media. Social media is free to write, he tells reporters covering the Malacanang beat. As all government media persons aspire, only good things about the boss should come out. Critics and opinion columnists have not all been kind to the policies, actions and words coming out of Duterte’s mouth.

A pain in Andanar’s neck was a pro-Duterte blogger’s  reference  to critics as “prestitutes”.  Andanar was hard put to say social media is free to write anything, but,  Malacanang had nothing to do with the writer’s work.

What is important,  Andanar said at a press briefing, is that what comes  out of his office is  the “official” press statement.

The foreign press is understandably an adversary,  siding as it does with international figures who question Duterte’s method of ridding the country of drug users and charge him of human rights violations.  Duterte’s men and women are divided on the issue of killing the culprits; there are many however who admire his obsession to save the children from the evil of drug addiction. It’s like choosing the lesser of two evils.  Andanar and his peers are hard put to say a good word for their boss.

What is important,  Andanar said at a press briefing, is that what comes  out of his office is  the “official” press statement.

Email: [email protected]