Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles (NIB photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles is ensuring an “orderly” dissemination of information on policies, programs, official activities, and achievements of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and the Executive Department by maintaining objectivity in making pronouncements.
In an interview on PTV-4's "The Chatroom" aired Wednesday night, Cruz-Angeles emphasized the importance of relaying statements that are free from her personal opinion.
“For orderly dissemination of information, you don't put any opinions there. That's what I'd like to imprint in the style that we’re trying to show now. There’s a lot of passion in the past administration, this time it’s more sedate, more objective. The President likes science and there’s a science to language,” she said.
“We don’t speak for the President, but we do clarify or put together what he has already articulated so that it is clearer,” she added.
Cruz-Angeles, a lawyer, said her approach to information dissemination would be to trumpet policies and programs that would benefit the nation.
“When you’re a lawyer, when you appear in court, you can only say what advances the cause of your client. So it’s like on a bigger scale, you say what advances the cause of the country. It doesn’t help, for example, if the public officials issue opinions that might run counter to existing policy. It makes for a lot of confusion,” she said.
She admitted that being the President’s mouthpiece was “challenging”, but also “kind of fun”.
Last June, Cruz-Angeles admitted feeling hesitant at first to accept her new position, noting that the job required “self-discipline” since she would be representing the President and government.
She said she eventually accepted the job offer because she did not want to refuse the chance to serve the nation and people.
Meanwhile, Cruz-Angeles said the President’s Executive Order No. 2, which reorganized and renamed the now defunct Presidential Communications Operations Office to the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS), allowed for a “rational” bureaucracy that translated to faster information dissemination.
“I noticed the reaction times are faster. If you look at the earthquake for example, we were on-air giving a press briefing in less than two hours…We coordinated with the information officers of all of the agencies and departments. This is based on the directive of the President. So, because of these link-ups, we get a clear view right away of what’s going on,” she said.
“When something like an earthquake happens, there are things already in place. It’s not just NDRRMC [National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council] but it’s also the other agencies and how they react and their own data systems. So we’re able to tap into that immediately and give a briefing before 10 o’clock,” she added.
The OPS currently supervises the operations of state-run TV stations PTV-4 and IBC-13, radio station Radyo Pilipinas, and the Philippine News Agency.
Radio Television Malacañang is now controlled by the Presidential Management Staff while the Philippine Information Agency has gone back under the supervision of the Office of the President. (PNA)
