Who’s Lei? PNA website down after draft bloopers

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine News Agency (PNA) took down its website late Friday after several draft articles were mistakenly published online.

Netizens feasted on the latest blunder of the state-run news agency, which has been under fire for months over errors in articles that it published, including a misleading photo of the Marawi siege and a wrong logo of the labor department.

In the latest set of errors, netizens discovered that some articles published on the PNA website had what appeared to be notes from editors to writers.

“Aerol, this is an old angle, pls reangle to awaiting president’s ok on proposal then go on with what the national broadband plan.alert me if u have refiled the story///DICT committed to further improve internet service in PHL,” one title read.

“April 12: Dear Ma’am LAP: this was not posted but was submitted in summary and sent yesterday. Ano kaya ang problema ng story? – GVR (LEG) 300 pregnant women attend Legazpi’s 9th Buntis Congress,” another read.

One recurring name was a certain Lei, who was ordered in several instances to re-angle a story.

She was immediately turned into a meme on social media sites, with one Twitter account with the handle @Lei_of_PNA posting, “I should have reangled that. #prayforLei.”

In a statement, Undersecretary Joel Egco, who was assigned to take charge of the PNA, said they are doing their best to address flaws in the system.

“Rest assured that while we expect to experience ‘birth pains’ as we transform from the old to the new, the flaws in the system are effectively being addressed, both in terms of manpower and technology,” he said.

“We are determined to bring back that old journalistic fervor that once defined editors and reporters of the news agency in its ‘glory’ days. Please bear with us,” he added.

Egco said incidents of negligence, incompetence and sabotage will be dealt with accordingly.