SENATOR Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday warned not only the credibility of President Rodrigo Duterte would suffer but also that of the whole country as a result of his communications officers’ conflicting statements.
“What about the Philippines? How can we deal with a country coming out with different policy statements?” Lacson said.
“Since it was the President who talked, the assumption there is final.”
Lacson said policy statements and everything else should conform to what the President had said.
He said the audience in the international community was different from the audience in the Philippines, who appeared to be more sympathetic. He said Duterte defied political correctness as a candidate and received the big votes as a result of it.
“Because of his defiance to political correctness, what’s coming out is what’s correct for him,” Lacson said.
He said Duterte’s communications officers should practice one voice because sometimes they had different explanations.
“When doing damage control, they should learn the art of lying closest to the truth,” Lacson said.
“Since President Duterte is apparently averse to unsolicited advice even from his closest Cabinet members, they should learn to anticipate the developing issues and be able to slip through the special assistant [to the President Christopher Go] a simple, informative executive brief on a regular basis.”
