Poe asks Andanar: Have you considered shutting down Mocha Uson blog?

FIGHT AGAINST FAKE NEWS: Senator Grace Poe (middle), chair of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, quizzes government officials, media personnel and bloggers present during the latest Senate hearing on the fight against fake news on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. (PRIB Photo by Alexis Nueva España, 30 January 2018)

“Have you ever considered that perhaps this a conflict of interest and it should be shut, Sir?” Chairperson of the Senate public information committee Senator Grace Poe on Tuesday asked PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar at the resumption of the hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media regarding the controversial posts of Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson on her Facebook page Mocha Uson Blog.

Poe, citing the Section 4(b) of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, stressed that Mocha’s role as assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) and as a blogger might have “overlapped” with the law.

The Senator said that it is stated by the law that public officials and employees during his/her term shall not “engage in the private practice of their profession unless authorized by the Constitution or law, provided, that such practice will not conflict or tend to conflict with their legal functions.”

“It’s very hard to separate her own personal opinion from that of the PCOO. Have you ever considered, and I will ask this and I hope you will answer in all candidness that since her own private blog is also a way of expressing and communicating, that this indeed (is) overlapping with her official functions? Perhaps even using government time to be able to fulfill her work in her blog,” Poe said.

Andanar responded by clarifying that she had spoken to Mocha about her controversial blog and asked her to take down some remarks she posted on her Facebook page.

“We’ve also spoken about her freedom of expression and also her way of speaking on her own Facebook page and I’ve called her out a few times and she has also taken down a few remarks…”

Andanar added that Mocha is serving well her market of overseas Filipino workers, and Classes C, D, and E of the society. He also added that she is accountable and not exempted from any law.

“I told her, as far as your blog is concerned, that is not a reflection of the PCOO. Whatever you say there is not from the PCOO,” he said.

The PCOO secretary also said it is “unfair” for workers in government media to be judged based on the social media posts of Mocha.

“If we judge PCOO based on Mocha’s blog, I think it’s unfair that thousands of workers of government media who work so hard to strengthen our platform,” Andanar said.

Senator Bam Aquino, however, emphasized that Mocha’s blog “reflects upon the PCOO and its work.

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“I’d like to think na 1,000 members ng PCOO, kayo kayo mismo pwede mag-ayos ng problema na ‘to na mga miyembro ng inyong samahan hindi gumagawa ng misinformation at hate speech [I’d like to think that PCOO has 1,000 members, so you yourselves can fix this problem that the members of your office cannot create misinformation and hate speech],” Aquino told Andanar.