Coloma successor vows to continue reforms
Incoming Presidential Communications Operations Office chief Martin Andanar yesterday vowed to continue the reforms started by his predecessor Herminio Coloma Jr. at the PCOO, which takes charge of the state’s mass media assets.
“I was impressed by the different bureaus that Secretary Coloma showed earlier. I guess the job for me is to continue the good projects that he has done,” Andanar said.
He is planning to craft the National Communications Strategy, which he had presented to president-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
“For now, the scope of my job is to manage all government media entities and maintain good media relationship.”
Being a broadcast journalist, Andanar vowed to beef up the PCOO operations as a whole.
“We want to build up the online presence. We would like to build platforms. We are planning to print our own weekly tabloid,” he told journalists in a briefing attended by Coloma.
While there will be continuities, a revamp is a must in some areas.
“Just like in any new administration, there will be a few changes. The co-terminous appointments that have shown good performance will not necessarily be fired. The good ones will be retained.”
Coloma toured Andanar around the Philippine Information Agency in Quezon City and other agencies under PCOO’s supervision, such as the state television station PTV-4, radio station
dzRB (Radyo ng Bayan), Philippine Broadcast Services ( PBS), Bureau of Broadcast Services and National Printing Office.
They were accompanied by PBS director Tito Cruz, dzRB station manager Alan Allanigue and
PTV- 4 general manager Albert Bocobo.
“I invited my friend and the next PCOO secretary Martin Andanar to see the situation of the mass media assets of our government,” Coloma told PTV-4.
“I want him to have a comprehensive idea of the government media assets and how these can be used by the Duterte administration to propagate the message of the government,” he added.
Andanar said he had worked for PTV-4 a few years ago and was impressed that all the problems of the state-run TV and radio, and all units under PCOO, seemed to have been addressed by Coloma.
“I no longer have any job to do,” Andanar said in jest. “I wanted to know what the PCOO has and what it does not have.”
Andanar, former news anchor of TV-5, said he would report his observations to Duterte and his executive assistant Christopher Go today.
“We have to prepare for the first big event, which is the inaugural,” he said, adding he still has to study the documents turned over to him by Coloma.