Appoint new press secretary, Marcos urged
HOUSE Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Representative Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan has urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to immediately name a new press secretary, saying he could not afford not to have one even for a day.
“Without a press secretary, Malacañang is bound to have presidential communication issues. Thus, our unsolicited advice to the President is for him to promptly fill up the vacancy,” Libanan said.
“The commotion over the President’s recent trip to Singapore which transpired when he effectively lacked a press secretary betrays the press secretary’s indispensable role in presidential communications,” Libanan said.
“Simply put, the press secretary’s job is to oversee the daily gathering and dissemination of information, including information about what the President is doing, where he is, and why he is there,” Libanan pointed out.
Libanan made the remarks on Friday when House news reporters sought his reaction to the President’s trip to Singapore to watch the Oct. 2 Grand Prix Formula One motor race upon the invitation of the city-state’s manpower minister.
“If Malacañang had a press secretary at that time, the press secretary could have announced beforehand that the President was going to attend the event because he deemed it important to use the occasion to further reinforce relations with Singapore’s political and business leaders,” Libanan said.
Robust relations with Singapore are absolutely imperative, considering that the more than 200,000 Filipinos living and working in the city-state send home some $2.2 billion in cash remittances to the Philippines every year, according to Libanan.
“In fact, the annual dollar transfers from our migrant workers in Singapore is more or less equal to the combined remittances that we receive from our workers in Japan and Hong Kong,” Libanan said.
The position of press secretary was effectively “vacant” by the time the President flew to Singapore, according to Libanan.
