Sen. Loren Legarda must be asking Malacanang a basic question: Who vetted Cesar Chavez to be the acting secretary of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO)? The normally serene Legarda, who cut her teeth in broadcasting decades ago, was astounded that Chavez and his underlings could not agree on the actual number of barangays in the country.
Legarda was apparently interested in what Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Director-General Jose Torres Jr. disclosed was a plan to train barangay information officers nationwide. Torres also worked for decades in both print and broadcast media and so he must have known just many barangays comprise the Republic of the Philippines.
So, Legarda went back to what she learned at the then Institute of Mass Communication (IMC) at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP) and sought actual figures, and the University of Sto. Tomas (UST)-trained Torres replied that there were 42,045 barangays, including his own barangay in Dapitan City. Legarda then turned to Chavez, who said the exact number was 42,046 barangays, citing the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA.)
Apparently, the newly minted PCO acting secretary was wrong, as was Torres, since the latest figure from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), as of July 2024, listed only 42,004 barangays nationwide. In Metro Manila alone, there were 1,710 barangays. Aside from the clashing figures of Torres and Chavez, Legarda fumed when the training program for barangay information officers preparatory to the Barangay Information Officers Network Summit was listed under PCO’s “accomplished and ongoing programs.” The dueling figures and the inappropriate description of the training program irked Legarda, who suspended further deliberations on the proposed PCO budget of P2.281-billion next year.
This is the second hit of Chavez, who earlier claimed that he nixed an offer for him to head the PCO in October 2023 and instead landed a job as presidential adviser on strategic communications (whatever that means.) Then the snafu over the birthday bash for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly organized by the presidential “barkada” that the Palace was supposed not to know. Then, the invitations came complete with the presidential seal and appeal to all invitees to leave their satellite and cellular phones to their bodyguards, secretaries, “yayas” and “alalays.” Truth is stranger than fiction. It materializes to inconvenience storytellers.
Nonetheless, Legarda may be a forgiving lot but it behooves her and the senators not aligned with the Palace to ask who vetted Chavez? Torres was appointed long before Chavez took over the PCO. It is good that Legarda froze the budget hearing as it would enable her to know if the adage “what goes around, comes around” would to the PCO, especially under its new leadership. If we may suggest, Legarda should look deeply into whether PCO funds are being deployed to finance troll armies, particularly now that the Marcoses and Romualdezes are battling the trolls and crones of the Duterte political dynasty.
It is now for the Marcos Jr. administration to start giving a premium on meritocracy. No more appointees shipped to government posts on account of their closeness to the Marcoses and not on the strength of their qualifications. No more influence peddlers linked to corrupt publicists to control the narrative for the benefit of their clients. No more overrated hacks who also freelance for the Dutertes and other political dynasties. It may not be too much to ask Legarda to seek them out not only at the PCO but in other agencies as well.
