Palace communications team to make Aquino gains ‘sexy’

MANILA, Philippines – The Palace communications team will strive to effectively convey the achievements of the Aquino administration to ordinary Filipinos by transforming “cold” economic data and figures into “sexy” information that they can better appreciate.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda made the statement in an interview on ANC, when asked if the administration would be tweaking its communications strategy.

“We’ll try to make it more sexy. Every ordinary person will not look at all these cold figures. You really have to convey to them these accomplishments by the President and his administration,” said Lacierda who fielded questions on President Benigno Aquino III’s 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA).

He said that Malacañang has been using infographics as well as videos to further illustrate the achievements of the administration.

Lacierda also said that the Aquino administration has tapped social media to report directly to the people.

“We are taking advantage of going directly to the people through social media where there is no filter, unlike [news] networks that would filter that we’re saying. The benefits of social media allow us to go directly to the people and disseminate information to them. That’s one avenue where we’ve been doing a number of infographics that we’re coming out with. And people appreciate that,” he said.

Asked whether the Palace communications team has had shortcomings in sharing the government’s accomplishments with the public, Lacierda said while there have been regular news briefings on top of other means of information dissemination, administration critics have also been working overtime.

“You have people hitting the President morning, noon, and nighttime, plus midnight snack. So we continue to provide information on this [accomplishment] but like they say, it’s just not sexy. We keep on telling the people the good news. People on the ground know this, the beneficiaries,” he said.

Some administration critics have faulted the President’s communications officials for his slumping ratings, and negative public sentiment on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the administration’s special spending program, which the administration asserts to be legal even after the Supreme Court had deemed as unconstitutional certain acts under the program.

Aquino’s satisfaction and approval ratings suffered double-digit drops in June and July 2014, his lowest ever as he enters the last phase of his presidential term, though continues to enjoy higher ratings than his predecessors with only two years more till the end of his term.

In his interview, Lacierda said that the President will spend his last two years in office  fulfilling the commitments he had made to the people at the start of his term. – Rappler.com