Palace online platforms left inactive for months

MANILA, Philippines — It has been months since online platforms of the executive branch's lead communications arm were updated with information on President Rodrigo Duterte's activities as well as statements and other media releases.

The main digital properties of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), which Secretary Martin Andanar heads, show a black homepage labeled "under maintenance" since late September, a few months after the staff of former President Benigno Aquino III turned it over to the new administration.

"We will turn off the pcoo.gov.ph site this weekend for design upgrade. We shall notify you when the new website will be online," the white text over a black background on the site's homepage reads. There was no date indicated in the advisory.

Asked by Philstar.com when the PCO's websites will relaunch, Andanar said the new target is the end of November. In early October, the PCO chief said they would be restored that month.

"[The] delay is caused by other projects," Andanar said in a text message. "We will be releasing new web products soon."

He said these are part of a change in the office's "policy direction".

His team, meanwhile, is occupied with the development of an electronic Freedom of Information site as well as with sorting the inventory of 60,000 pages of the Official Gazette, Andanar said.

The two-month lack of activity makes the archives of the websites, which journalists and researchers use to verify information or source data from, unavailable to the public.

The social media accounts formerly controlled by Aquino's two communications teams—the Presidential Communications and Operations Office and the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office—are also abandoned.

The 2016 General Appropriations Act, which allots the main unit alone a budget of more than P211 million, states that the PCO is responsible for "public access, engagement  and understanding of presidential policies and government programs."

It is also mandated to serve as the top information dissemination agency and the "premier arm of the Executive Branch in engaging and involving citizenry and the mass media in order to enrich the quality of public discourse on all matters of governance."

Facebook alone

Earlier this year, the PCO folded the Facebook pages of its units into one, which has more than 550,000 subscribers. It is now the unit's remaining public platform that posts regular updates, usually with live streams of presidential activities and a few photos.

Despite Facebook's expansive reach in the Philippines, searching a Facebook page for information is not as easy as going through a website's archives. A website is crawled by Google, making its content available to an even wider user base.

PCO's Twitter and Viber accounts are not as active, with fewer than two tweets and posts a day, and with a few photos from some of the president's activities.

"(Presidential Communications) is now the official social media account for both Facebook and Twitter," Andanar said.

The last update on its Google Plus account was on September 30, before which the page would release photos of presidential appearances as well as statements, transcripts and other releases quickly.

The Official Gazette last updated its Facebook page also on September 30. Its Twitter account has been similarly neglected.

The website, meanwhile, contains Duterte's latest orders, signed legislation and only a few Palace statements.

In October, Andanar told Philstar.com that the Official Gazette will be returned to its "constitutional function" of publishing administrative and executive orders, proclamations and legislation.

Recent documents, however, are not posted on the site's accompanying social media accounts, which have a combined number of 2.6 million followers.

The Official Gazette was established by Act No. 453 in 1902, and given further mandate to publish new laws to effect their promulgation by President Corazon Aquino in 1987.

An online version with social platforms started during her son's presidency in 2010.

The website of the Philippines News Agency, a unit reporting to the PCO, has similarly experienced downtime for the past week.

The current online efforts are a far cry following Duterte's inauguration in late June when photo releases became available right after his address, and all the other properties released information relevant within the news cycle.

'Misleading' infographics and 'revisionism'

In September, netizens slammed the Official Gazette for "historical revisionism" when its Twitter and Facebook accounts seemed to downplay abuses during the martial law period under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The publication has since apologized, claiming that it based statements on its archives.

A string of infographics on the PCO's main Facebook account on illegal drug use in the Philippines were criticized for misinterpreting the numbers. The posts were later on deleted, noting complaints by Facebook users.

This month, the agency was again in hot water over a Facebook infographic on infrastructure spending.

"The graph is misleading because averages were used with different number of years per value. You can improve the comparison by using year one of each administration," a netizen pointed out.

In the wake of the September 2 Davao City blast, where more than a dozen people died, informal statements made via SMS, social media and broadcast interviews by Duterte's officials sowed confusion among journalists on whether the declaration of a "state of lawlessness" applied nationwide or only in Mindanao. The proclamation was posted only a day after on the Official Gazette.

Andanar, in mid-September took full responsibility for his team's failings, and appealed for understanding. He said the team follows a daily communications plan, but sometimes has to revise it at the last minute because of input from Duterte.