{"id":121418,"date":"2017-10-04T22:05:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T02:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=121418"},"modified":"2017-10-04T22:05:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T02:05:09","slug":"mocha-urged-to-draw-line-between-professional-personal-statements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/04\/mocha-urged-to-draw-line-between-professional-personal-statements\/","title":{"rendered":"Mocha urged to draw line between professional, personal statements"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Mocha Uson (Photo: MOCHA USON BLOG\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 Senators on Wednesday urged Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson to draw the line between her professional and personal statements noting that this is a sacrifice she needed to make as a government official.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat alam mo<\/em>\u00a0(You should know) what you can and cannot do,\u201d Senator Antonio Trillanes IV told Uson during the Senate hearing on fake news led by Senator Grace Poe.<\/p>\n

Trillanes made this point when the issue of Uson\u2019s blog and Facebook page was brought up. Her blog, Mocha Uson Blog, has been criticized by the public for posting unverified statements, articles, and photos and later tagged as fake news.<\/p>\n

Uson, a staunch ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, is known for sharing and posting articles that are pro-administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala ka nang personal na<\/em>\u00a0opinion being a public official at the PCOO [Presidential Communications Operations Office] (You no longer have a personal opinion being a public official at the PCOO),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Uson, however, explained that her blog reflects her own views and not of the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ako<\/em>\u00a0aware\u00a0na wala na akong karapatang ipahayag ang sarili kapag ikaw ay<\/em>\u00a0government official na (I\u2019m not aware that I no longer have right to express myself once you become a government official),\u201d Uson said.<\/p>\n

The Senator, however, insisted that as PCOO Assistant Secretary, the nature of her job was to communicate the official line of the government.<\/p>\n

Trillanes said while Uson was allowed to run a personal blog, she should avoid spreading misinformation and denying it afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung gagamitin mo yung<\/em>\u00a0blog to promote the Duterte, defend Duterte or explain his policies, by all means,\u00a0gamitin mo. Pero ang ayaw namin dito is gagamitin mo yung<\/em>\u00a0medium\u00a0na \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0to spread misinformation\u00a0tapos may<\/em>\u00a0deniability\u00a0na hindi yan<\/em>\u00a0government\u00a0kasi personal mo<\/em>\u00a0(If you want to use your blog to promote Duterte, defend Duterte or explain his policies, by all means, use it. But what we don\u2019t accept here is when you use that medium to spread misinformation and then say it\u2019s not the government opinion because it\u2019s your personal opinion),” Trillanes said.<\/p>\n

Senator Nancy Binay, like Trillanes, said that Uson needed to choose between being a blogger and being a public official.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot use the excuse of doing things in her capacity as a private individual. At this point in time,\u00a0hindi mo pwede ihiwalay ang pagiging<\/em>\u00a0Asec\u00a0mo sa pagiging\u00a0<\/em>blogger\u00a0mo<\/em>\u00a0(You cannot separate your being an Asec from being a blogger),\u201d Binay said.<\/p>\n

Poe added that Uson needed to \u201clet go\u201d of her personal opinions as a PCOO official because it is good as speaking on behalf of the administration.<\/p>\n

Good influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trillanes, meanwhile, told Uson that because she has a strong influence to the public with over five million followers, she should use it in a \u201cpositive way\u201d and be a \u201cgood influence\u201d to those who followed her.<\/p>\n

Uson, for her part, said that she would take into consideration all of Trillanes\u2019 suggestions.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung naiwan ko yung propesyon ko sa<\/em>\u00a0entertainment —\u00a0yung pagsasayaw ko para manilbihan sa bayan<\/em>, I will consider his suggestion sa approach\u00a0sa pagba<\/em>-blog\u00a0kung makakabuti po ito para sa bayan<\/em>\u00a0(If I was able to leave my profession in the entertainment industry — dancing –to serve the public, I will consider his suggestion if it\u2019s going to help be better serve the public.\u201d)<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Uson approached Trillanes to have her photo taken with him.<\/p>\n

Friendly exchange<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trillanes and Uson also had a friendly exchange before the senator began asking the assistant secretary questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng guwapo niyo pala<\/em>, Senator Trillanes.\u00a0Hindi<\/em>\u00a0fake news\u00a0\u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(You\u2019re really handsome, Senator Trillanes. That\u2019s not fake news),\u201d Uson said.<\/p>\n

The senator replied by saying: \u201cKonting bola na at baka iatras ko na ang kaso (Compliment me a bit more and I might just withdraw the case).\u201d<\/p>\n

On September 22, Trillanes IV filed before the Office of the Ombudsman libel charges under the Cyber Crime Prevention Act; violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees; and graft.<\/p>\n

The complaint stemmed from Uson’s posting on her Facebook page of “images and links to what appears to be a number of uniform computer-printed documents purportedly being offered to prove that the undersigned had numerous bank accounts in foreign banks, which purportedly constitutes his\u00a0‘tagong yaman’<\/em>\u00a0(hidden wealth).”\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 Senators on Wednesday urged Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson to draw the line between …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":118792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[26087,20852],"class_list":["post-121418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-assistant-secretary-mocha-uson","tag-presidential-communications-operations-office-pcoo","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}