Andanar’s early ‘demise’

Last we heard, Miscommunication Secretary Martin Andanar’s role in the Palace has apparently been watered down in the aftermath of that unfortunate scrimmage with media. 

This is a good move by the Palace.

By sidelining Andanar, the Palace is set to avoid the same mistake that the previous administration committed with the latter’s choice of Palace talking head.

This development may have signaled the early “demise” of Andanar’s role in this administration. If that is the case, this is a welcome development.

It will be recalled that Andanar had aired allegations that members of the Senate press corps covering the testimony of Arthur Lascañas were offered a one thousand-dollar bribe.

He later tangled with journalists who nitpicked on his statement regarding certain “intelligence reports.”

Based on his own announcement, Andanar’s office would placed under the Office of the Press Secretary. He would no longer be in charge of “messaging”—that task is now slung over the shoulders of Secretary Ernesto Abella.

In the press conference where he made the announcement, Andanar was quick to clarify that the reorganization of the Palace’s communication arm had nothing to do with his recent scuffle with the members of the Fourth Estate.

It is unfortunate that the Miscommunication Secretary appears to continue to entertain the impression that the public is dumb and incapable of putting two and two together.

We hope that the President’s legitimate communications team has learned the valuable lessons that the misadventures of Andanar has taught.

Among them: gossip, speculations and unfounded reports are dangerous when used as fodder for the media mill; it is useless to engage media in open hostilities; it is dangerous to openly ascribe malice on the part of the press.

Other valuable lessons: no matter what happens and no matter what the mood of the Palace talking-head is, media will always get the story; media will always sense it when there is a disconnect in the Palace storyline.

We hope that Andanar’s absence from the limelight would give him enough time to reflect and understand that the role was not meant for him.

The job calls for an honest-to-goodness public communicator, not a news reader.

We can only commiserate with Andanar. After all, of the three talking-head personalities of the Duterte administration (the other two being Abella and Presidential Legal Counsel Sal Panelo), Andanar, initially appeared to be the most promising.

After all, his voice lands well on the ears of the listening public and the television camera definitely likes him. His sartorial taste is decent and has none of the maverick propensities of Panelo’s wardrobe.

Abella has obvious attempts at modulating, making him sound artificial and too rehearsed. The combination waters down authenticity.

Panelo, of course, sounds like he is perpetually chewing sticky gum which distorts the mouth cavities and makes for something which resembles an American accent.

We do not question Andanar’s set of skills as far as news-reading is concerned.

However, handling interviews and fielding questions from media is a different discipline altogether.

The task requires strategic thinking capabilities. One has to be adept and quick at organizing ideas, establish a logic that can be understood by the man on the street, and shut his mouth at the appropriate moment.

Andanar should have sought professional help.

A professional communicator could have helped Andanar avoid the pitfalls that the spokesman of the previous administration—former Secretary Edwin Lacierda— allowed himself to be trapped in.

Meanwhile, we hope that Palace talking-heads would finally let go of that “destabilization plot” spiel that Andanar initially planted.

That line recently got acting Foreign Secretary Yasay into a lot of trouble at the Commission on Appointments.

In what he described as a moment of severe nervousness, Yasay attributed his failure to obtain the CA nod to an alleged “destabilization plot” against President Duterte’s administration.

Liberal Party Secretary-General and Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Sato scored Yasay for the latter’s claim. And, rightly so. After all, the LP itself knows that there can be no such plot.

There can be a collective wishful thinking among anti-Duterte forces that there would be such a plot. That’s it. It cannot get beyond the realm of wishful thinking, at least for the moment.

As we have said before, any plan to oust the President has to be based on the assumption that there is somebody whom the public loves – or who would at least be acceptable to the public – waiting as a replacement, regardless of whether or not the replacement is in the order of succession as provided for by the Constitution.

At this point, there is none. In particular, none from the ranks of the opposition. Not Vice President-under-protest Leni Robredo. Not incarcerated Sen. Leila de Lima. Not the incorrigible Sen.Sonny Trillanes.

Wishful thinkers must accept that, at least for now, the President is safely in the saddle.

And, at least for now, any attempt to oust the President would be bloody and would have to be orchestrated by external forces willing to gamble and experiment with a military junta.