To the very end, just-resigned Assistant Secretary for Communications Margaux Uson attempted to peddle inaccuracy.
Foremost, she said her decision to quit her job was an act of sacrifice, supposedly so that the P1.4-billion budget of the Presidential Communications Operations Office could be passed. A previous budget hearing for the PCOO was deferred because of her absence.
There is no sacrifice here. The agency’s spending is being questioned because of a history of bad spending decisions.
Second, she said her resignation was not the end of the fight; it was just the beginning.
We wonder what fight this woman is talking about. The only fight we are aware of is her fight, not for truth but against it. Look at the string of blunders committed by her office, and her haughty defense of her actions.
Third, she wants to style herself as a heroine. Note her threatening words to her critics, sounding straight out of some sappy show: “Do not make the mistake of thinking that you won,” she said. She vows to do what she did during the campaign: ”Let’s have a fist fight, let’s fight it out. Don’t restrain me.”
But this is not about Mocha, the person. It is about the absence of meritocracy in the appointment of officials, and the mistaken belief that the number of online followers is enough to boost credibility.
Uson’s resignation is as phenomenal as it is overdue. It should signal the end of an era at the PCOO when incompetence, indecency and arrogance were the norm. It should occasion the return of “communication” to its correct definition, not the opposite.
Uson vows to carry on what she has been doing in her blog, We cannot stop her from doing so, as we cannot also stop her rabid followers from parroting every line she wants them to say. It’s a consolation though that she will not anymore do these under the mantle of an official title—and that we taxpayers will no longer foot her outrageous bill.
