Quezon joins Aquino communications group

Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Manuel L. Quezon III. officially announced Monday that he is joining President Benigno Aquino III's communications group. "The time has come to bid my readers farewell. I have accepted the President’s invitation to become a member of his communications team," Quezon, who served as Aquino's inaugural spokesman, said in his column in the newspaper. Quezon said his specific functions will focus on "strategic planning in terms of messaging," including market research and polling. His functions will also include the editorial aspects of the government’s official communications, including editorial guidelines and policies in general, the Official Gazette, and "corporate identity and institutional memory," he said. Quezon began writing for the broadsheet in February 2004. A leading scholar in the country, Quezon is the grandson of former President Manuel L. Quezon. He has also been a vocal critic of ex-President Arroyo. There were criticisms during the campaign period that ABS-CBN, where both Quezon and Carandang used to work, was biased in favor of President Aquino, an accusation that ABS-CBN's news and current affairs head Maria Ressa denied. "[Our] main goal is to serve the Filipino people the best way possible and that means telling them the way it is even if it's hurtful to us," she pointed out. On Sunday, the ABS-CBN News Channel or ANC — where he was hosting a show — announced that Quezon resigned as a talent effective Saturday, but without citing any reason. Malacañang is set to formally announce the members of its communications group within the day. On Saturday, a Palace source disclosed that Aquino has decided to appoint former Transportation and Communications Undersecretary Sonny Coloma and ANC anchor Ricky Carandang to head the group. The source said Coloma would be in charge of media operations, and Carandang of messaging. Carandang resigned from ANC Friday. In his Twitter account, Carandang said Monday morning: "First day at work. I feel like the new kid in school." The communications group is the restructured Office of the Press Secretary. Its communications strategy will include working on strengthening the government's feedback mechanism, which is expected to include social media. The group will be setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts where the public can air their grievances and leave comments. Among the first tasks of the new communications group is to determine how it will handle the National Broadcasting Network and attached agencies of the Office of the Press Secretary, such as the Philippine Information Agency, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Sunday. The Office of the Presidential Spokesman would be under the communications group instead of the Office of the President as it was in the past, Lacierda said. He said the group would also look into how they can improve the programs on government TV stations, and whether they would tap popular personalities to join the shows. —With Jesse Edep/VS, GMANews.TV