PCOO dismisses accusations of employing trolls, backs penalizing fake news perpetrators
MANILA - The
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Thursday told
legislators that they do not employ “trolls” to churn out fake news to the
public, contrary to allegations made by critics.
“We will never
use it as a tool to discredit our critics in order to consolidate power, as our
critics have gravely alleged us of doing without any evidence,” he added.
The Commission on Audit (COA) said that the PCOO spent
over ₱70.6 million for the salaries of
contractual hires, to which the agency responded that these hires were needed
in order to intensify information dissemination amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PCOO submitted on June 7, 2021 the justification for the hiring of 375 Contract of Service (COS) personnel for the year 2020.
Secretary Andanar said that the majority of these COS
personnel are occupying highly technical positions in the creative and
production field such as producers, photographers, videographers, video
editors, drone operators, animators, graphic artists, multimedia artists, sound
design editor, streaming operator, and radio production assistant, among
others.
“Due to the lack
of plantilla positions and the fact that the current personnel complement is
not capable of performing said duties and responsibilities, the PCOO hired
contractual personnel to execute the needed tasks,” he added.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the PCOO initiated
various communications campaigns which focused on producing multimedia
materials about the national government's COVID-19 response, the National
Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19, and many other priority programs
and achievements of the Executive Branch.
Special projects have also been undertaken by the agency
by virtue of Memorandum Of Agreements with other government agencies which
require the hiring of COS personnel, such as the Philippine Statistics
Authority for the Philippine Identification System, and the National Housing
Authority for the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program.
During the Senate
hearing, Secretary Martin Andanar expressed his support for a policy seeking to
penalize individuals who are found to engage in spreading malicious
information.
“It's a good idea
to enact something like that or go beyond it by penalizing those who spread
fake news,” Secretary Andanar said as he agreed to submit a draft of the bill.
This signifies
the PCOO's full commitment to providing accurate and timely information to the
public even though it has been at the receiving end of accusations of being a
breeding ground for social media trolls.
PCOO also agreed
to submit to the Senate
finance subcommittee
regarding the 1,479 COS workers that it has engaged, including that of its
attached agencies. The PCOO proper currently has reduced its COS personnel to
330 personnel, after filling up recently-opened plantilla positions granted by
the Department of Budget and Management. ###
