Palace to be more aggressive in spreading ‘good news’

President Benigno Aquino III attributed the drop in his ratings partly on a lack of effort to inform the public of “good news" under his administration. Malacañang thereby promised on Saturday to be more aggressive in spreading positive news about the administration. Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said Aquino’s Friday statement is a signal for the Palace’s Communications Group to “brag" more often. “For us it was a signal to be more aggressive. Minsan pag pinaguusapan yan meron tayong Filipino trait na nahihiya tayo magbuhat ng sariling bangko, pagpasensya ninyo kami. Hayaan nyo kaming mas madalas ilabas ang magandang nangyayari sa administrasyon," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. (For us, it was a signal to be more aggressive. We do have a Filipino trait to not toot our own horn. But kindly excuse us if we now become more aggressive in spreading news about our achievements) “Siguro it’s also a reorientation of human interests might also be in order, or again a more aggressive communication on the part of the Communications Group when it comes to really good news na ilalabas natin ng ilalabas (We may have to reorient human interests, or be more aggressive in churning out good news)," she added. Recent surveys by pollsters Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations showed Aquino’s ratings dropped in March 2011. SWS’ survey showed that Aquino’s net satisfaction rating went down 13 points to +51 (69% satisfied minus the 18% dissatisfied) from November’s +64 (74% satisfied, 10% dissatisfied). Last week, Pulse Asia said that a survey it conducted from Feb. 24 to March 6 showed that Aquino's ratings dropped from 79 percent in the time period Oct. 20 to 29 to 74 percent in May. On Friday, Aquino said that blamed the drop in his satisfaction ratings on the failure of the good news done by his administration to reach the public. He said there is a need to improve the dissemination of the information related to what the government is doing for the people. Aquino lamented that some of his administration’s positive developments failed to make it to the front pages of newspapers such as the Atlantic Gulf and Pacific’s $10 billion in contracts and its need for 4,000 engineers that could be filled by those that were displaced from Libya. Valte said the latest incident of “good news" being set aside was the ouster of someone alleged to be the daughter of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos from a reality TV show due to her being Marcos’ daughter. For his part, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. said there is always good news to be found. Coloma hinted he is planning to work more closely with the departments under the executive branch to look for and promote such good news. “Kailangan din magtulungan ang buong pangkat ng executive branch. Hindi lang kakayanan ng CommGroup yan (We have to help each other. The Communications Group alone cannot do it)," he said. — AY/TJD, GMA News