Post by grifter on Oct 20, 2005 8:46:42 GMT 7
Arroyo going against advice of Velarde
TO THINK that El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde had advised President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that she needed a "better" spokesperson than the one she had.
Despite his less than perfect handling of the "Hello, Garci" tape scandal, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye will apparently be rewarded by the President with an appointment as the undisputed boss of Malacañang's entire communications and media machinery.
According to a Palace insider, Bunye is scheduled to be named head of a new department, the Presidential Communications Group (PCG), which is being developed to replace the Office of the Communication Director (OCD) that was quietly abolished a few weeks ago.
The source said Bunye himself and Rigoberto Tiglao, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, were drafting the executive order creating the PCG.
The Inquirer yesterday asked Bunye to confirm the supposed plan to create the PCG and his appointment as its head, but he declined.
Early this week, Velarde said the President needed a spokesperson who had charisma, was not combative, and could speak with clear authority from her.
He said he had given Ms Arroyo this advice in an effort to help her win public support against those seeking her ouster.
"One thing I have been telling the President repeatedly is that there are too many [voices] in the administration sending the wrong signals. I have advised her to look for a better spokesman, and only one," said Velarde, who is also a spiritual adviser of Ms Arroyo.
Velarde said Bunye no longer had credibility and often left people wondering whether he was talking for himself or for his boss.
Besides, he said, Bunye had been on the job long enough to give way to "someone fresh."
"Secretary Bunye is a good man, but his flip-flopping on the issue of the 'Garci' tape has caused people to ask, every time he speaks, 'Does the President know that? Is that her statement?'" Velarde said, adding:
"And another thing is, there is a better way of advancing a forceful argument in a nice way, not in a combative way."
Velarde was referring to Bunye's erratic statements on the "Hello, Garci" tape -- the wiretapped conversations between Ms Arroyo and a man believed to be then Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano -- which he was the first to present to the public.
Guts
Bunye, who used to be unflappable under pressure, has lately been issuing strong words against protesters and critics of Ms Arroyo, lumping them together as "destabilizers."
Velarde said the spokesperson of the President should speak with authority.
"[She needs] someone fresh, with the guts to tell [her] what is right and wrong. At the same time, someone who has charisma, such that when you face the people, the mere sight of your face will compel them to listen," said the man who has used his personal charisma to maintain an estimated following of five million.
"But now, what I hear people say when they see his (Bunye's) face ..." Velarde said, trailing off and shaking his head.
In Velarde's reckoning, it is just right for the President to be surrounded by numerous advisers.
"But at the end of the day, the President's words must remain; it's her decision that must prevail. And it cannot be that [her spokesperson] will say, 'That was just my personal opinion; the President does not know about it,'" Velarde said.
He added: "[The spokesperson has] to clear every pronouncement with the President."
Eduardo Ermita sober
Velarde said conflicting statements were contributing to Ms Arroyo's problems.
"Don't put the President in a delicate situation," he said. "Most of her problems now are not of her own making," he said.
Among the Cabinet members, Velarde finds Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita "sober."
Ermita "does not invite counterforce, and [talks] without being an apologist," Velarde said.
But he took issue with Ermita's recent statement that elderly critics of Ms Arroyo, like former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, better stay home and not take part in protest rallies.
Velarde has denounced the violent dispersal of protest rallies in Manila, and called on the President to immediately withdraw the calibrated preemptive response policy used by police on demonstrators.
Failure
The President created the OCD just a few months after the May 2004 elections, with an eye toward consolidating the government's disjointed propaganda machine.
She has blamed her communications people for supposedly failing to convey to the public her numerous projects and achievements. This supposed failure is believed to have resulted in her perennially dismal approval ratings.
The OCD's first and only head, Silvestre Afable, quit the post in June after less than a year in office, reportedly because of his frustration over his inability to achieve the office's goal of being a seamless, professional and technology-driven communications group.
The OCD lacked a budget and was getting its funds from the Office of the Press Secretary. Afable was also unable to assert his will, supposedly because of the clash of egos in Malacañang and the fact that there were others with the same Cabinet rank as he.
Although the President put the OCD on top of the Office of the Press Secretary, the Philippine Information Agency, the Correspondence Offices, the speech writers group, the communications research group, and the government media group, Malacañang's communications group has remained fragmented-and Ms Arroyo's ratings are still at the bottom levels.
Better chance
The Palace insider said that with Bunye poised to broaden his sphere of influence in the communications group, the PCG had a better chance of fulfilling the goals of the defunct OCD as envisioned by the President.
But Bunye has been reviled for his alleged attempt to mislead the public in the "Hello, Garci" scandal, and for supposedly putting the President in a deeper hole.
He has claimed that there was a "Hello, Garci" tape, and was the first to say that it was the President's voice on the tape.
*Courtesy of INQ7.net
TO THINK that El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde had advised President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that she needed a "better" spokesperson than the one she had.
Despite his less than perfect handling of the "Hello, Garci" tape scandal, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye will apparently be rewarded by the President with an appointment as the undisputed boss of Malacañang's entire communications and media machinery.
According to a Palace insider, Bunye is scheduled to be named head of a new department, the Presidential Communications Group (PCG), which is being developed to replace the Office of the Communication Director (OCD) that was quietly abolished a few weeks ago.
The source said Bunye himself and Rigoberto Tiglao, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, were drafting the executive order creating the PCG.
The Inquirer yesterday asked Bunye to confirm the supposed plan to create the PCG and his appointment as its head, but he declined.
Early this week, Velarde said the President needed a spokesperson who had charisma, was not combative, and could speak with clear authority from her.
He said he had given Ms Arroyo this advice in an effort to help her win public support against those seeking her ouster.
"One thing I have been telling the President repeatedly is that there are too many [voices] in the administration sending the wrong signals. I have advised her to look for a better spokesman, and only one," said Velarde, who is also a spiritual adviser of Ms Arroyo.
Velarde said Bunye no longer had credibility and often left people wondering whether he was talking for himself or for his boss.
Besides, he said, Bunye had been on the job long enough to give way to "someone fresh."
"Secretary Bunye is a good man, but his flip-flopping on the issue of the 'Garci' tape has caused people to ask, every time he speaks, 'Does the President know that? Is that her statement?'" Velarde said, adding:
"And another thing is, there is a better way of advancing a forceful argument in a nice way, not in a combative way."
Velarde was referring to Bunye's erratic statements on the "Hello, Garci" tape -- the wiretapped conversations between Ms Arroyo and a man believed to be then Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano -- which he was the first to present to the public.
Guts
Bunye, who used to be unflappable under pressure, has lately been issuing strong words against protesters and critics of Ms Arroyo, lumping them together as "destabilizers."
Velarde said the spokesperson of the President should speak with authority.
"[She needs] someone fresh, with the guts to tell [her] what is right and wrong. At the same time, someone who has charisma, such that when you face the people, the mere sight of your face will compel them to listen," said the man who has used his personal charisma to maintain an estimated following of five million.
"But now, what I hear people say when they see his (Bunye's) face ..." Velarde said, trailing off and shaking his head.
In Velarde's reckoning, it is just right for the President to be surrounded by numerous advisers.
"But at the end of the day, the President's words must remain; it's her decision that must prevail. And it cannot be that [her spokesperson] will say, 'That was just my personal opinion; the President does not know about it,'" Velarde said.
He added: "[The spokesperson has] to clear every pronouncement with the President."
Eduardo Ermita sober
Velarde said conflicting statements were contributing to Ms Arroyo's problems.
"Don't put the President in a delicate situation," he said. "Most of her problems now are not of her own making," he said.
Among the Cabinet members, Velarde finds Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita "sober."
Ermita "does not invite counterforce, and [talks] without being an apologist," Velarde said.
But he took issue with Ermita's recent statement that elderly critics of Ms Arroyo, like former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, better stay home and not take part in protest rallies.
Velarde has denounced the violent dispersal of protest rallies in Manila, and called on the President to immediately withdraw the calibrated preemptive response policy used by police on demonstrators.
Failure
The President created the OCD just a few months after the May 2004 elections, with an eye toward consolidating the government's disjointed propaganda machine.
She has blamed her communications people for supposedly failing to convey to the public her numerous projects and achievements. This supposed failure is believed to have resulted in her perennially dismal approval ratings.
The OCD's first and only head, Silvestre Afable, quit the post in June after less than a year in office, reportedly because of his frustration over his inability to achieve the office's goal of being a seamless, professional and technology-driven communications group.
The OCD lacked a budget and was getting its funds from the Office of the Press Secretary. Afable was also unable to assert his will, supposedly because of the clash of egos in Malacañang and the fact that there were others with the same Cabinet rank as he.
Although the President put the OCD on top of the Office of the Press Secretary, the Philippine Information Agency, the Correspondence Offices, the speech writers group, the communications research group, and the government media group, Malacañang's communications group has remained fragmented-and Ms Arroyo's ratings are still at the bottom levels.
Better chance
The Palace insider said that with Bunye poised to broaden his sphere of influence in the communications group, the PCG had a better chance of fulfilling the goals of the defunct OCD as envisioned by the President.
But Bunye has been reviled for his alleged attempt to mislead the public in the "Hello, Garci" scandal, and for supposedly putting the President in a deeper hole.
He has claimed that there was a "Hello, Garci" tape, and was the first to say that it was the President's voice on the tape.
*Courtesy of INQ7.net
